Stories

I would like to express my appreciation to all of the Rotary Club members and the Friends of Rotary” who participated in our two recent fundraisers. Bob Benjamin coordinated the volunteers for the Lost Dutchman Days Marathon. Michael Cowen ran the Lost Dutchman Days Rodeo. Ron Knies was Michaels right hand man and helped direct the numerous volunteers. Both events were very successful in raising the monies to meet our community commitments. I am very proud of the selfless individuals who participated and worked so hard to make these events profitable for so many worthwhile projects and charities.

Angel is a retired Lt. Colonel in the USAF and she has a Ph.D. She was a very humorous speaker who told us of her various experiences in the military and had everyone laughing. Her book is based on her posting to Udorn AFB in Thailand where she managed the base Officers' Club. Her book takes its name from the fact that pilots who had a MIG shoot down would drive a truck into the lobby of the Officer's Club - hence "Angel's Truck Stop". She told of losing good friends to enemy fire and quipped that from her experiences, you don't have to be shot at to suffer the wounds of war.

At the end of her presentation, Angel asked any Viet Nam war vets to come forward to receive a certificate from her thanking them for their service. In the picture below, from left to right are Angel, Bob Benjamin, Ron Knies and visiting Rotarian Jim Nelson.

Two stories flow together to make this story. The first one concerns a citizen effort to beautify Royal Palm Road in Apache Junction. Royal Palm has a median strip down the center that was planted with palm trees for several blocks but the planting was never completed. That left a long strip of bare median that some considered an eyesore. Some neighbors (including Mayor Jeff Serdy) from a subdivision on Royal Palm Rd. got together to raise funds to plant some native desert trees to complete the median strip in stages as they were able to raise funds. The other story was Rotary International President Ian Riseley's plan to have Rotarians throughout the world plant a tree for each member of their club. Our club accepted the challenge and put new member Warren Salinger in charge.

Someone (AJ City Manager and club Member Bryant Powell?) got the two groups working together with Rotary supplying funds to buy the trees. Warren and the neighbors worked with Liz Langenbach from AJ Parks and Recreation who got the trees planted. They are in a symmetrical pattern - 3 Mesquites followed by 3 Ironwoods followed by 3 Palo Verdes that repeats along the length of the street.

Following our weekly meeting, a delegation of Rotarians and a delegation of neighbors met on the Royal Palm median strip to celebrate the tree planting. We even had a Parks and Rec drone fly over taking pictures.

This was a great project that will leave the environment more beautiful for years to come.

We had lots of visitors today. Dick Thomas from the Sun Lakes, AZ RC accompanied our speaker Angelica Pilato. Other visiting Rotarians were Sarah Hanson from the Waukee, IA RC, Bill Ohe from the Edmonton Riverview RC, Dodie Doolittle from the Florence, AZ RC, and Past District Governor Jim Nelson from the Rockford, IL RC. DR. Krista Anderson, the Superintendent of the AJUSD schools, was a visitor.

1. The Gilbert Rotary Club is sponsoring a Trivia Night as a fund raiser for their club. It will be held on Friday, March 2nd from 6 pm to 9 pm. Location: Shakespeare Room of the SE Regional Library at 775 N. Greenfield Rd. in Gilbert. Harvey Clark is assembling a team from our club to compete in the event.

2. Mike Cowan still needs 3 volunteers for the Lost Dutchman Days beer sales and a person to supervise the Sunday effort.

3. Harvey told the club that the February 28 program concerning "The 13 Folds of the American Flag" will be held in the main dining room. Guests from outside the club need to register with Harvey at harvey.clarksuperrotary@gmail.com.

4. The drawing today was worth only $22 since Murray Hiatt found the joker last week. Ron Knies won $10 but drew the queen of hearts - appropriate for Valentine's Day.

Curt Ward, President of the Gilbert Rotary Club led off with a presentation about the Navajo Water Project. This project is working with the St. Bonaventure Nation. Currently most homes on the St. Bonaventure Reservation get their water via a monthly tanker truck delivery. This method has problems with storing adequate amounts for the month. This project pays for the construction of a communal cistern large enough to serve 17-18 families and costs $4,500. Their budget is met for one cistern but there are still 150 more families who could benefit from the communal cistern idea.

Curt is hoping that a $75,000 Rotary Global Grant they have applied for will be approved. He also is hoping Sun Lakes Rotary will take over the leadership role for this global grant. Our club could become a sustaining member for the Sun Lakes club.

Curt's presentation was followed by classification talks by three of our newest members - Warren Salinger, Lorraine ________ and Ray Trankle. Each person told an interesting story of their lives, their values and their previous experience with Rotary, if any.

1. We are partway through our joint tree-planting project with the able help of AJ Parks and Rec (Liz Langenbach) and Warren Salinger from our own club. Four trees were planted at the Boys and Girls Club baseball field. Next, 36 more trees will be planted along Royal Palms Avenue in AJ so we will have donated a total of 40 trees which represents one for each club member. On February 21st at the end of our weekly meeting, Parks and Rec will have a van at the resort to take whoever wishes to be in a photo to the final planting along Royal Palms Avenue. The van will return us to the resort.

2. The drawing was worth $691 today. Sharon Stinard won $10 and a chance at drawing the joker but she drew the 10 of diamonds.

Today's speaker was Nancy Fassbender representing the Pinal County Veterans Memorial Foundation. The Foundation's goal is to construct a memorial for veterans from Pinal County who have given their lives in battle from WW I to the present day defending our freedom and liberty.

The memorial will be built inside the Ed Hooper Regional Park in Casa Grande, a city which is located at the center of Pinal County. The center piece will be a bronze statue of a serviceman from the waist up offering the folded American flag as if presenting it to a family member of a fallen veteran at a military funeral. The statue will be placed on a pedestal with the words "On Behalf of a Grateful Nation" carved into it. The statue will be surrounded by an octagon-shaped wall where the names of the fallen service members will be inscribed. There will also be a kiosk with information about each soldier.

The Foundation is a 501c3 organization. They are sponsoring two events to raise money for the memorial. On Sunday, February 11, the 4th Annual Mardi Gras Celebration will be held at the Gold Canyon Golf Resort from 1:30 to 4:00 pm. Howard Schneider and his All Star Dixieland Band will provide dance music. There will be food, prize drawings and 50/50 drawings. The other event is the 8th Annual Golf Tournament on March 17 at the Arizona City golf course. For more information about either event contact Donna Stadum at 480-332-6916. Ben Fellow's wife Peggy is also selling tickets for the Mardi Gras event. See her for your tickets.] Nancy has written a book "My Favorite Hero" which tells the stories of some of Pinal County's fallen heroes. Proceeds from book sales go toward the memorial.

Visitors today were Richard Wilson of Gold Canyon - a guest of Harvey Clark, "Van Van Jepmond from the Lacey, WA Rotary Club and Warren Tobin from the Jamestown, ND Rotary Club. Our speaker Nancy Fessbender was a club guest.

1. Bob Benjamin will call around to get volunteers to work at the Lost Dutchman Marathon. The Marathon is scheduled for Sunday, February 18 in the morning. The club provides a water aid station and course marshalls for the 8K Trail Run. Bob expects 400-600 runners in our event. For our service we receive $2,000 from the LDM Committee.

2. Len LaFlesch reported on the recently-completed Rotary Golf Tournament. We raised $3,000 from ticket sales for the ball drop with half going to the club. It turned out that 3 golf balls went into the cup. One ball was unsold, so the other two split $1,500. Jack Beveridge from our club was one of the two winners. We raised $2,600 on the silent auction. Len named the names of people who had made major contributions to the success of the tournament.

Harvey Clark introduced our speaker for the day - Elaine Yount from Visiting Angels East Valley. Elaine is the Director of Care Management and is their Community Liaison for Education, Outreach and Advocacy. She is a Certified Dementia Practioner.

Visiting Angels is a non-medical home care agency that provides seniors and adults with the assistance they need to continue living in their own homes. Services they provide include assistance with bathing, dressing, grooming, walking, medication reminders, shopping, light housekeeping, meal preparation, and respite care for caregivers. In other words, they help with whatever is a struggle for the client.

Elaine teaches a class for care givers that involves discussing 42 questions about home care. Currently it is being taught at the AJ Chamber of Commerce. She hopes to be able to offer the course in Gold Canyon as well.

Visiting Angels is careful about doing comprehensive background checks on all employees. The client can interview and then select the Visiting Angels staff person they would like to work with. It is a franchise business with 564 offices throughout the U.S. The East Valley office is located at 701 W Southern Avenue in Mesa. The cost is $30 per hour with a 3-hour minimum visit required. Once the out-of-pocket costs reach $120, the hourly cost drops to $25.

The Superstition Mountain Rotary Club Golf Tournament was a resounding success!

Our club’s volunteers stepped up and got the job done. Led by Len Flesch, Michael Munion, Brenda McCullough, Paula Blessman and Larry Wight. The Rotary volunteers and friends of Rotary were everywhere and taking on the tasks at hand. Our volunteers arrived early and stayed late. Harvey Clark took a video of the 50:50 Ball Drop. John Blessman coordinated with the local Superstition Mountain Fire and Medical for their participation in the ball drop. Two lucky winners split the $1500.00 prize. Congratulations to Jack Beveridge, one of the winners. Our volunteers included Bob Benjamin, Ron McCullough, Tracey Yamamoto, Don Tarrant, Cheryl Kramer, John Blessman, Ron Knies, Michael Cowan, Roberta Holmes, Dean Holmes and Aaron McDermid. The members who played in the tournament were Terry Drader, Matt Ruppert, Maurice Francoeur, Lee Holmes, Michael Munion, Doug Evans, Bryant Powell and Alex Blais. A great showing of players and volunteers. Great work Rotarians and friends.

Michael Munion and Len LaFlesch took the lead in orchestrating the event, with strong backup of eager volunteers. Len was our MC at the luncheon. Great job Len!

Larry Wight, our resident professional auctioneer, did an outstanding job of extracting more money from the crowd in the live auction portion of the afternoon.

Brenda and Paula organized the tournament flyer, the online sign up for golfers and categorized the prizes for the silent and live auction as well as prizes for the winners. Tracey organized the 50:50 Ball Drop tickets which raised $1500.00 for our club. Thanks to all of our exceptional volunteers who kept us organized and moving forward throughout the day. Aaron, Heather, Brenna and Kadyn organized the T-Signs that advertised our local business community (see the golf flyer for a list of companies). Each company donated $150.00 per sign.

Please read the second enclosed attachment that lists all of the Tee Sign Sponsors.

Our Corporate Sponsors, Arizona Water Company (Thank you Jacquie!) and Republic Services, Inc., each contributed $1000.00. Arizona Water Company also donated gift cards. Our Drink Sponsor, Amazing Dental Care (Thank you to our Kiwanis friend, Andrea Chisholm) also donated $1000.00. Horne Hyundai put up a new car for a chance to win it in a hole in one contest. Fry’s Marketplace donated bottled water, snacks for the golfers and gift cards.

Our members contributed a long list of prizes for the golf prizes and auction items.

All in all, a fun, engaging, entertaining day in Gold Canyon and a step closer to reaching our Rotary goals for the year. Nick Armstrong and Carlo Karim donated several prizes from the Gold Canyon Resort and ran an exceptional tournament for our club. A sincere appreciation to everyone in striving for a better community. PROUD TO BE A ROTARIAN!

Our newest member is Donald C. Austin who has transferred his membership from the Edmonds, WA Daybreakers Rotary Club. Don is the retired owner of Heritage Panelgraphics. Don and his wife Ruth live in Apache Junction. Take an opportunity to introduce yourself and welcome Don to our club.

Today's speaker was Mary Cameli, the first female chief of the Mesa Fire Department. Mary has 35 years of fire department experience. Her responsibilities include overseeing 500 employees.

She explained how one works their way through system. New fire-fighting employees have to have graduated from the Fire Academy that provides training in physical fitness, fire fighting and EMT certification. One starts at the firefighter level. The next step after experience and demonstrated leadership is to become a truck captain who is in charge of the crew of one truck. The next step is to become a truck engineer who is responsible for the deployment and use of the firefighting equipment on the truck. The next level is the battalion chief who is in charge of all the trucks at a fire or medical incident. Finally the top is the department chief who reports to the Mesa City Manager. The Mesa firefighters are unionized and the department has great relationships with the union.

The local fire departments cross over fire district boundaries to provide fire or medical response if they can get to the incident faster than the in-district trucks. She mentioned that Mesa Fire went over the boundaries 5,000 times in 2017 and had about an equal number of incoming fire departments such as Superstition Fire and Medical provide services for them.

In response to a question, Mary said that there were 2 female fire fighters in 1983 and there are 20 today. In response to another question about ambulance service, she said that Mesa contracts with an outside vendor for ambulance services but some departments such as Superstition Fire and Medical have their own ambulance service in house.

1. Don Austin has completed the required 3-meeting attendance requirement for membership and he has applied for membership in the club. Don is transferring his Rotary membership from the Edmons WA club as he and wife Ruth are now living here full time.

Signing in today were visiting Rotarians Curt Wood from the Gilbert, AZ Rotary Club, Warren Tobin from the Jamestown, ND Rotary Club and Don Austin of the Edmons, WA Daybreakers Rotary Club. Elise Otero from Kingman, AZ was a guest. Mary Cameli was our speaker. Shirley Cowan was a guest of her club member husband Mike Cowan. Linda Simmons of Gold Canyon was a visitor. Welcome to all of you!

Our speakers today were club member Frank Mwinyelle and Farah Butler from Integrity Hospice Care. Integrity is located at 6877 S. King's Ranch Rd. in Gold Canyon.

Integrity uses an interdisciplinary team approach. The team is composed of a medical doctor, a social worker, and a registered nurse. The team develops a plan of care to address the needs of the patient and his/her family. Some of the services available are:

Routine nursing

Effective pain control

Bereavement services

Home health aide

Social services

Spiritual counseling

PT and OT services

Speech therapy

Respite care for caregiver

Pharmacy with home delivery

Dietician services

Integrity also makes use of specially trained volunteers who are available to spend time with the patient and offer companionship to the family.

Visitors today were Warren Tobin from Jamestown, ND, Don Austin from Seattle, WA and Andrea Chisholm, outgoing chair of the AJ Chamber of Commerce Board. Don Trankle from Gold Canyon is a new member of the club. Farah Butler from Integrity Hospice Care was one of our speakers. This was the first visit by Neal King from Canada.

Our speaker today was Dr. Jim Blessman, M.D., President and Founder of Blessman International. He had a very successful medical practice in Iowa but at the age of 54 after several mission trips, he felt God's call and decided to enter the foreign mission field in South Africa.

One very important goal of Blessman International is to feed children and to help them grow up to be good human beings. The HIV epidemic has led to tens of thousands of children in South Africa without a parent. It is estimated that there my be as many as 2 million orphans. The Blessman compound feeds 7,500 children weekly. They also provide shoes and eyeglasses for the kids.

Another important goal is to promote sustainability. They bought 180 acres to start a demonstration farm. Currently they are growing vegetables and chickens and soon will move into tilapia fish farming via a $150,000 grant from Rotary to the Waukee, IA club.

Paula Blessman, who we heard speak earlier this year, is in charge of a BI project called Days for Girls that provides girls with feminine hygiene information and products.

Dr. Jim would love to have some of our club members come along on the trip to RSA in January. He said you can take it as a Christian experience, a Rotary experience or a tourist experience. Lee Holmes echoed the invitation.

Amazing what you are doing for the people of South Africa. We will provide some support for your activities.

Wow - we had so many guests and winter visitors we had to bring in extra tables and chairs. What a great problem to have! Back for the first time was Rotarian Jim Dokken from The High River Alberta Rotary club. Signing in on the guest list were Ray Trankle from Gold Canyon as a visitor and Warren Tuon, Rotarian from the Jamestown, ND Rotary Club.

2. Aaron McDermid reported on the board member and officer nominations for 2018-19. The President position will have to be filled by committee of former presidents again. Board nominees and officers are:

Bryant Powell

Jacquie Smith - Secretary

Tracey Yamamoto

Aaron McDermid

Len LaFlesch - Treasurer

Bob Crow - Rotary Foundation

Mike Dungan

Cheryl Kramer

Lee Holmes

The club voted unanimously to elect the slate presented.

3. Golf Tournament - golf ball drop raffle tickets were handed out. Club members are expected to sell or purchase the 20 tickets.

We will need registration volunteers on tournament day starting at 10:30 AM.

4. Lee Holmes asked if anyone had an outdoor patio heater they could bring to the Social on the 16th.

5. Jack Beveridge invited club members to attend the distribution of turkeys and other Holiday meal components at Empowerment Systems on December 13. The address is 2066 west Apache Trail. 1/2 block west of Ironwood.

6. Ed Shockley suggested we pony up $20 per person to pay food costs for the Social. He mentioned a BBQ place in Mesa that will cater in.

Pete Polster, a former club member, is undergoing Parkinson's treatment. Pete has been given a Paul Harris Fellow award by the club.

We received a letter of thank you from East Valley Adult Resources for a donation we made.

Lee and Roberta Holmes invite all club members and their significant others to attend a "2017 Holiday Social" to be held at their home on Saturday, December 16th starting at 5:30 PM. Winter visitors and significant others are always welcome to attend. The Holmes home is located at 6320 E. Dalea Way in Gold Canyon.

2. Len reminded us of the need to get prizes and players for the golf tournament on January 13th.

3. Mike Dungan told the club of the passing of Jan Miller, wife of long-term winter visitor Harrell Miller of Napa, CA. Mike read aloud Harrell's tribute to his wife.

4. Jack Beveridge brought along his communications director who told us of two projects being run by Empowerment Systems:

a. The Sixth Annual 2017 Drive. They are seeking donations from club members to provide a wonderful holiday meal for up to 120 families.

b. The Eighth Annual Awards Luncheon. March 29. They are seeking sponsorships in the $500 to $5,000 range to support the wide variety of programming done by Empowerment Systems. They are also selling tickets to the luncheon.

5. Earl Zumwalt said his "Goodbyes" to the club. He has really enjoyed being a member and he has participated fully in our activities. We will miss you Earl - a lot! Thank you!

6. Alex Blais won the drawing and $10 (which he contributed back to the club) but he drew the 10 of diamonds. The drawing was worth $474.50 today. We are down to 19 cards.

Our scheduled speaker was a "no show", so Lee Holmes graciously stepped up to tell the club about some projects he is involved with in South Africa. Lee is a retired veterinarian from Iowa.

District 6000 in Iowa received a grant from Rotary to build wells in South Africa. They auctioned off an expense-paid trip which Lee bid on and won. He and Roberta spent their 30th wedding anniversary on this S. African mission trip.

While there, the Rotary group dug 14 wells situated near schools. Some of the wells are powered by electricity - a couple are solar powered and one is wind powered. They actually bought a used windmill for the latter.

In the interim, the Holmes have been involved with the Blessman Ministries. That organization donated 8,000 pairs of shoes. Other projects are vegetable gardens, better toilets, donating eye glasses, microcredit projects (sewing, cafe'), a chicken-raising project, a female hygiene program and a feeding program.

John and Roberta are inviting the club to their home for our annual Christmas social. See elsewhere in this eBulletin.

Our visiting Rotarians today were Lorraine Dopson from the Bismarck, ND Rotary Club and Earl Zumwalt from the Calgary Rotary Club. Nadia Adawala and Marni Rawszer from Mesa were visitors to the club today. We welcomed back winter visitors Mary and Terry Drader and John Raine.

1. Jack Beveridge announced the Empowerment Systems annual turkey drive. This is for the Christmas holidays rather than for Thanksgiving The turkeys are given out on December 13th. Jack is soliciting donations - you can provide a low income family with a turkey dinner for $20. Donate online at empowermentsystems.org. or make a check payable to "Empowerment for Life Foundation." Jack thanked the club for its donation of $300 toward this project. Jack also announced the recent birth of his second grandson.

2. Jim Erickson handed out pins for his term as District Governor of District 5495 which begins July 1, 2018.

3. Ed Shockley thanked the volunteers who worked at the Festival of the Superstitions (see following article). Ed read a thank you from CAAFA for the $1,000 club donation and for the 20 club members who stepped up to give $20 each.

Ed started a bucket around for a Christmas present from the club for the kitchen staff.

4. THE CLUB IS NOT MEETING NEXT WEEK DUE TO THE THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY.

5. Lee and Roberta Holmes are going to host the club Christmas party at their home on December 16th. More details to follow.

6. Mike Munion announced a Golf Committee meeting following this meeting.

7. Aaron McDermid is recruiting people to serve on our club Board of Directors for the next Rotary year which starts on July 1, 2018. We have to let Rotary International know by the end of this calendar year who our club officers are for next year.

8. The drawing today was worth $441. Roberta Holmes drew the winning number and won $10 but she drew the 2 of clubs. We are down to 19 cards remaining in the deck.

Our speaker today was our own Mike Munion on the topic "The Pain Project". Mike has an MA and is an LPC who has been a practicing psychotherapist in Arizona since 1979.

Mike started out by discussing the opioid epidemic that our country is experiencing. For example 2 people die daily in Arizona from opioid overdoses. Mike then made the distinction between acute and chronic pain.

The Pain Project is an online community where people who suffer from chronic pain - and the pain project therapists who care for them - learn to manage pain and provide support for one another. The professional staff of the Pain Project (13 by my count) interact with patients via Skype sessions that last up to an hour. The objective according to Mike is to develop patient-centered pain self management. Another objective is to adopt a conservative use of analgesics - what's needed and no more.

We welcomed visiting Rotarians Don Austin from the Edmonds (WA) Day Breakers club and Van Van Jepmond, one of our regular winter visitor attendees from Lacey, WA. Tracey Yamamoto brought as her guest Justin Waters who is a dental student at Midwestern University in north Phoenix.

Thanks are due to a bunch of people who helped at the club's fundraiser doing beer sales at the Festival of the Superstitions on November 11 & 12.

First of all to Harvey Clark for chairing the club's participation in this event including rounding up volunteers at our weekly meetings. Second to Len LaFlesch for handling the bureaucratic red tape involved in getting a liquor license to sell beer at the Festival.

Thanks too to the Handlebar Pub and Grill that donated the beer and wine and to the AJ Chamber members who organized the entire event. The Handlebar also provided two employees named Krista and Kerry who helped with beverage sales.

1. Veterans Day is November 11. Acting President Jay asked all club military veterans to stand and be recognized for their service.

2. Ed Shockley had several announcements

The Rotary Foundation Dinner was attended by Jay and Carol Jones, Bob and Jenny Crow, Jim and Maryanne Erickson and Ed and Cassandra Shockley. Roy Klinginsmith gave a great talk about the history of Rotary. There was a band and a buffet dinner.

Ed read a thank you letter from the Save the Family Foundation.

There will be a Board meeting next week at 11:00 AM

3. Harvey Clark made a plea for a few more volunteers to sell beer at the Festival of the Superstitions this weekend.

4. Sharon Stinard reported that the CAAFA fundraiser "Giddy Up Gala" was a big success. They hope to exceed their fund raising goal for the event. She thanked the club for our support of the event.

5. Len reminded club members of our individual obligation to provide a gift for the silent auction or drawing prizes. We should also be working to encourage friends to play in the tournament.

6. Aaron McDermid served as our Sargent at Arms and raised fine money.

7. The drawing today was worth $421. Matt Ruppert won the drawing and $10 but drew the 4 of diamonds. We are down next week to only 20 cards remaining.

Brian said there is a lot going on at the airport. Last year, there were 275,000 takeoffs and landings. There are 2,500 on-airport employees. The airport covers 3,000 acres.

Allegiant is the main passenger carrier. It serves 46 non-stop destinations and more are being added. He mentioned Calgary, Boise, Milwaukee, Omaha, Kansas City, and Louisville. They are trying to add more carriers. There were 1.4 million passenger boardings last year. Allegiant is in the process of switching over its fleet from MD-80s to Airbus 319s that are quieter and more fuel efficient.

In terms of corporate and general aviation, they are so busy they have run out of hangar space. The Airport Authority is trying to decide whether to build more hangars themselves or turn it over to a private builder who will lease the space. There are several flight schools operating at the airport.

The Authority has reached a 49-year agreement with an LLC to expand the Gateway Aerospace Park. They will follow a master plan developed by the Airport Authority.

There are 700 acres on the east side of the airport that will feature a new passenger terminal. The environmental impact statement for construction on that site has just been approved.

The East Valley is emerging as its own market. Gilbert and Chandler are each around 265,000 in population. The Airport Authority has representatives from Gilbert, Mesa, Phoenix, Apache Junction, Queen Creek and the Indian community.

Our speaker today was Jennifer Koeller, Corporate and Community Relations Manager for the "Save the Family Foundation of Arizona".

The Save the Family Foundation was founded in 1988 as a 501c3 corporation. It is headquartered in Mesa, AZ. Its mission is to equip families to address poverty, to overcome homelessness and to achieve self-sufficiency. Save the Family uses a 3-tiered approach involving housing, case coordination and supportive services to homeless, low income, disabled and veterans families. 90% of the families who enroll in their programs graduate within 10 months and move on to success in employment, financial stability and a life of independence and self-reliance. They serve over 650 families a year.

Their greatest needs are for cash donations and volunteers. They also need donations of clothing, food, hygiene products, cleaning supplies and furniture. Donor tours are available to see what they do firsthand.

For more information or to make a donation, go to www.savethe family.org.

There is nothing in the Rotary International Manual of Procedure (lovingly referred to as “The MOP”) that states that Rotary Clubs are required to include the Pledge of Allegiance and/or an Invocation during their meeting openings.

The definition of an invocation is the action of invoking something or someone for assistance or as an authority. It does not have to be of a religious nature. An invocation can also include inspirational messages.

In our district, I know of at least one club that doesn’t include the Pledge of Allegiance in their openings. Instead they have a club member with sufficient boldness to stand up and lead the club in singing “God Bless American” or any of a number of songs in a Rotary Songbook. (Yes, there really is such a thing as a Rotary Songbook. They can be ordered through the RI website.)

In summary, the content of each club’s opening ceremony is up to each club! Since the Superstition Mountain Rotary Club has never (to the best of my knowledge) formally addressed this issue, our meeting moderators have the option of using an invocation, a Rotary thought, or a thought for the day during the opening of our meetings.

1. Bob Crow asked if anyone had made a contribution to Polio Plus during the triple match campaign. If so, contact him. One donor gave $250 which ended up becoming a gift of $750.

2. Ed Shockley gave a brief summary of the meeting with the District Governor on October 25. There were six clubs represented. We received a new banner for the upcoming Rotary year of 2017-2018.

3. Guests Ruthanne Wahlheim and Martha McNair made a brief presentation encouraging people to sign up for the Affordable Care Act. The time window is narrow this year.

4. Jay Jones said he picked up theme pins for the new Rotary year at the meeting with the DG. Ask him if you would like one.

5. Harvey Clark reminded the club that we need volunteers to sell beer at the Festival of the Superstitions. He passed around a sign up sheet but is still short of volunteers.

6. Ben Fellows (right in picture) was recognized for his support of the Mexico Micro Credit program. Ben gave a gift of $500 to help entrepreneurs get started in business.

7. The club inducted Warren Salinger as our newest member. Bob Homann is his sponsor and Bob presented Warren with his Rotary pin. Warren is interested in the international dimensions of Rotary and plans to get involved in that area.

8. The drawing was worth $397.50 today. Ben Fellows won the drawing and $10 but drew the 10 of clubs. There are only 21 cards left in the deck so your chances of winning are going up each week.

We welcomed visitors Ruthanne Wahlheim and Martha McNair, both from Mesa, AZ. Cassandra Bloomer from Gilbert, AZ was a guest of Aaron McDermid. Matthew Hill of Phoenix was a guest of Bryant Powell. We also welcomed back winter visitor Doug Evans.

2. Debbie Jusko said the club alone met CAAFA's $400 goal for 20 donations of $20 apiece. She brought receipts for tax credit for the donations.

3. Sharon reminded the club of the CAAFA Fundraiser "Giddy Up Gala" to be held on November 4 at 5:30 PM at the Rockin' R Ranch at 6136 E. Baseline Rd. in Mesa. Tickets are $25.

4. Next week there is no noon meeting of the club. Club reps will be meeting with the DG in the evening.

5. Harvey Clark announced a club fund raiser - selling beer at the Festival of the Superstitions. It will be held in Flatiron Park on November 11-12. Volunteers are needed to sell beer on Saturday from 10 AM to 6 PM and on Sunday from 10 AM to 2 PM.

6. Aaron McDermid has the dictionaries pre-positioned in the classrooms for the Dictionary Project on October 25 and all the slots are filled. If any problems, contact him no later than the day before. He will not be available on the 25th.

7. Rotary Foundation Dinner

8. 17th Annual Golf Tournament.

9. Mike Dungan brought us the "News of the Day".

10 Aaron McDermid served as Sargent at Arms and raised fine money.

11. The drawing was worth $390.50 today. Mike Cowan won the drawing and $10 but drew the 5 of spades. There are not many cards left hiding the joker.

Our speaker today was Jerry D. Walker, President of Mobilizing America's Commitment to Veterans (MACV). Jerry was a medical corpsman in the Navy who went out on helicopter missions to give aid to wounded Marines.

He founded MACV as a 501c3 charitable corporation to seek out local veterans including homeless ones and to provide them with information on services meant to help them be successful in society after military service. He himself went back to college and has a BA and an MA and an honorary PhD from an English University. In the discussion period after his presentation, AJ City Manager Bryant Powell told us there are around 15 different groups offering services in AJ to vets and he is hoping to get them to sit down together to talk so each group knows what the other is doing.

Harvey Clark introduced our speaker Dorian Townsend, Executive Director of the Community Alliance Against Family Abuse. Dorian has now been with CAAFA for one year. Her hobbies include ice hockey, board games and dressing in costume to visit childrens' hospitals.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. Dorian told us of various ways the city of AJ, local businesses, Central AZ College and the Allstate Foundation are providing ongoing activities during the month.

This is CAAFA's 20th year and so they are starting a "Twenties" campaign to raise money. Debbie Jusko collected $20 contributions from a number of club members towards one of the campaign goals of 20 gifts of $20.

CAAFA is sponsoring a community training event on suicide prevention to be held November 8 from 10:00 to 12:30 at Central AZ College. It is free but an RSVP is required.

Some of the new areas that CAAFA is providing help for are ways to deal with sexual harassment/abuse in the AZ National Guard, cyberstalking and financial abuse.

Their annual fund raiser - the Giddy Up Gala - will be held on November 4 at 5:30 PM at the Rockin' R Ranch at 6136 E. Baseline Rd. in Mesa. Tickets are $25

The Rotary club surprised club member Sharon Stinard with a short ceremony honoring her key role in founding the Community Against Family Abuse (CAAFA). The organization is celebrating its 20th year and has grown into an irreplaceable regional resource in providing services to victims of domestic and sexual violence. Harvey Clark presented Sharon with a commemorative plaque and presented CAAFA's Executive Director Dorian Townsend with a check for $1,000 in Sharon's honor. Sharon also received a pin for her Paul Harris Fellow + 1 award.

Sharon spoke briefly to thank the club and to stress the ongoing need for financial support to keep CAAFA healthy. She praised the excellent staff and the volunteers that keep CAAFA going forward. Sharon is a long-term (18 years) member of the Superstition Mountain Rotary Club. She has twice served as club President and has served on the club's Board of Directors numerous times. She is a Paul Harris Fellow. Debbie Jusko of our club is a member of the CAAFA Board. Branden Biggs, another CAAFA Board member, was present today to honor Sharon.

Harvey Clark introduced our speaker - Judy Lutes of the Arizona Winter Visitors Association. The AWVA was formed in 1992 by a group of 100 winter visitors so this is their 25th year of existence. It is an all-volunteer organization. Judy said she spends 30-40 hours a week on AWVA business. Their office is at 861 W. Superstition Blvd. in Apache Junction and they are open from 9-12 am M-F.

The organization works for the benefit of winter visitors by providing information, goods and services via a network of local businesses, publications, handouts, etc. They also have a travel network, an insurance network, a Canadian Health Care network, and offer help with Medicare, help with Health Care Directives, reduced rates to the Arizona Republic, etc.

They are hosting a 25th Anniversary "Welcome Back Bash" on December 4th at Barleens' Arizona Opry at 9 am. There will be lots of door prizes.

They are also selling tickets to win a restored 1974 Harley Davidson golf cart.

There are an estimated 70,000 winter visitors in the Mesa, Apache Junction and Gold Canyon areas each year. But the AWVA has a statewide reach and has even received inquiries from Mexico wondering about visits across the border.

Harvey Clark introduced our speaker for the day, Diana Fisher, Director of Marketing for HealthSouth East Valley. Diana has been with the company for 6 years. She earned a BS from Emporia State U. (KS), did graduate work at the University of Kansas and has an LPN degree from Gateway Community College. Most recently, she was elected to the Board for the Arizona Burn Foundation.

HealthcareSouth of the East Valley is located on Baseline between Recker and Higley. They are a rehabilitation hospital focusing on people who have been in car accidents, burn victims and stroke victims. She talked with us this morning about strokes.

Stroke frequency is up 75% since 1973. The most common stroke is caused when a blood clot goes to the brain. Another type is hemorrhagic stroke that often occurs in people in great shape. Quick analysis of a stroke event is the key to successful treatment. Clot dissolving agents can be administered before too much damage has been done.

HeathcareSouth East Valley provides daily doctor visits and 3+ hours of therapy daily. They have a pharmacy on site, they have a specialized neurological unit and all their nurses are certified. The technology which is available to help patients is truly amazing.

Lucy Young was a member of our club for many years. Ultimately, her deteriorating health situation required her to cut back on activities and so she quit coming to meetings. She was later made an honorary member of the club. Lucy was the owner of The Little Prospector pre-school in Apache Junction, was on the AJUSD school board and was very active in the Apache Junction community. One of her service activities for the club was to solicit, read and evaluate Rotary college scholarship applications from AJ seniors. She always argued that the "A" students would be well taken care of by the colleges they applied to and by scholarship donors and that Rotary scholarships should go to the "B" students with good records and potential for future growth.

A Celebration of Life Ceremony for Lucy was held on September 16 at Mountainview Funeral Home (the one formerly managed by our club member Steve Lewis). The turnout was huge with people standing in the aisles, in the back and in an overflow room. Five Rotarians from our club and three of their spouses attended. The anecdotes from family and friends was light-hearted with many funny stories told. It was abundantly clear that Lucy was well-loved and well-respected.

Donations in Lucy's memory can be made to the "Lucy Young Legacy Scholarship Fund" (Wells Fargo account number 5112667497) or to the Rotary Foundation.

Sharon Stinard introduced our speaker for the day - Dr. Jacquelyn Elliott, President of Central Arizona College. She has Bachelor's and Master's degrees in English and an Ed.D. degree in education. She has 22 years of experience in a variety of administrative positions in 2-year and 4-year colleges. She has been President since July, 2016.

She grew up on an Indian reservation and her parents had not attended college. Dr. Elliott spoke of the importance to her future of receiving encouragement to attend college. One program very influential in that decision was the Upward Bound program. She proudly announced that CAC had just been notified that the college was going to become an Upward Bound program site.

She shared with us some of her initial observations about CAC after a little over a year on the job. She called CAC a "Diamond in the Desert".

1. Operating over 5 campus locations is a challenge.

2. The college offers 159 degree or certificate programs which she thinks is too many for the size of the college. Maybe 60 would be a more reasonable number. What programs make sense for these times?

3. Community relationships need to be improved and that is one of her goals over the next 2-3 years.

4. Fundraising needs to be improved. The college raised only $145,000 last year and 13% of that came from staff at the college.

5. She has had success meeting with employers in an attempt to align the college's offerings better with the needs of businesses. The pharmacy tech program is one example of a successful new program. The construction industries have a crying for need trained carpenters, welders, electricians and plumbers and she plans to have the college respond with training programs for these skilled trades.

6. She wants to improve internal communications with staff and faculty as well as empowering employees closest to an issue to make the decisions to solve the problem.

7. The retention rate at CAC is 32% which can be improved.

Thank you Dr. Elliott for your transparency about the college and for sharing your hopes and dreams for the future of your students.

1. Jay Jones mentioned the passing of former club member Hazen Bernard. Hazen was the father-in-law of Mike Dungan. Jay suggested memorial gifts be given to the Rotary Foundation.

2. Len LaFlesch said the club is sending a $1,000 check to the Houston, TX Rotary Club for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts. Thanks for spearheading this effort Len.

3. Harvey Clark announced he is working on the January, 2018 speaker list. Harvey is doing a terrific job as our Program Chair. Thanks for all you do Harvey. It makes our club meetings interesting and informative.

4. Mike Cowan announced that he and wife Shirley have formed a new realty business in Gold Canyon. Mike received a round of applause in appreciation of his new venture.

Jay Jones introduced our speaker of the day, John Pennypacker, who is a member of the District's Rotary Foundation Committee. John is well-known to our club since he served as District Governor in 2014-15 and he has been out to speak at our club several times. He is very active in Rotary leadership areas.

The Rotary Foundation funded 1,165 Global Grants in 2015-16 for 76 million dollars to support a wide variety of good causes. Our dues help pay for the global grants and so we all participate in these grants indirectly if not directly. On the Polio Plus front, there were only 7 new cases worldwide in 2016 so we are very close to getting it eradicated. Compare 7 in 2016 vs 1,000 new polio cases a year in just the USA in 1955.

John announced the Rotary Foundation Dinner "Abundant Harvest" to be held on Saturday, November 4 at 6pm at the Doubletree by Hilton in Tempe. It will be a buffet dinner costing $50. The speaker will be Ray Klinginsmith, past Rotary International President. Cowboy attire is welcome.

John made two special presentations to two club members who have become members of the Paul Harris Society. PHS members pledge to support the Rotary Foundation to the amount of $1,000 per year.

Presentation to Dr. Tracey Yamamoto

Presentation to Ed Shockley

CONGRATULATIONS TO TRACEY AND ED FOR THEIR STRONG SUPPORT OF THE GOALS OF ROTARY!!

Visitors today were prospective member Jim Rutkowski (3rd visit) and Dr. Ray Lang from the Lake Havasu City Rotary Club. Anya Baig was a guest of her husband Fareed Baig and John Pennypacker. our speaker, was a guest of the club.

1. Brian Kabat reported on the Rotary Leadership Institute held in Flagstaff on Saturday. He participated in Session 1. Brian will be our club president for the 2018-19 Rotary year.

Jay Jones of our club was a resource person at the conference and Brian expressed admiration for Jay's broad knowledge of Rotary. Brian asked Bob Homann to give him any info he has on the club's history. Jeannie Anderson offered Brian the scrapbooks she has that also give some club history. Brian has been working with the high school through Larry LaPrise and thinks he will make helping the school district the focus of his presidency. Specifically he mentioned a new scoreboard and field improvements for the girl's softball team (est. cost $12,000) and an enclosed trailer for transporting band instruments (est. cost $9,000). Brian has reserved space at Dolce Vita on November 18, 2018 for a fundraiser - maybe a comedy club night. He strongly encourages other officers and members to attend the Leadership Institute.

2. Sharon Stinard thanked Debbie Jusko and Aaron McDermid for their roles in helping CAAFA move to their new larger quarters.

3. Jay Jones mentioned that the next Leadership Institute will be held on October 7, 2017 at Prescott College. All three sessions will be available.

4. Today's acting President Bryant Powell announced that Lee and Roberta Holmes have been approved by the Board for transfer of membership to our club. He introduced them to the club.

5. Aaron McDermid served as Sargent-at-Arms and raised money "for the children".

6. The pot was worth $255.50 today. Ed Shockley won the drawing and $10 but drew the queen of hearts.

Today's speaker was E'lan Vallender, Senior Economic Development Specialist for the City of Apache Junction. He was introduced by Bryant Powell, City Manager of Apache Junction. E'lan has a Bachelor's degree in business from Ottawa University and a Master's degree in Public Administration from ASU. He has been with the city for four years.

His talk today is to bring us info about recent developments in Apache Junction. One is the opening of the new city Park on Rte. 88 across from Best Hardware. Rotary helped with the creation of a splash pad at the park and E'lan says he sees kids using it regularly. Another big story is the new Fry's Marketplace store being built. Fry's is expanding from their current 63,000 sq. ft. to 120,000 sq. ft. There will be an additional 16,000 sq. ft. available for other businesses. The new store is targeted to open in November, 2017. There has been some interest expressed by businesses in the old Fry's store.

Two new housing developments are starting up in the city limits. One on Superstition will be multigenerational and one on Tomahawk will be a 55+ community. They will bring an estimated 100-250 new homes into the city of AJ.

ADOT is planning the installation of a roundabout at the intersection of Rte 88 and Idaho Rd. It is an awkward corner for turning and the roundabout will alleviate that problem. The tentative start date for construction is Jan. or Feb., 2018.

Finally, Pinal County is going to put a 1/2 cent sales tax increase on the ballot. If approved, the funds will be used to accelerate transportation improvements in Pinal County. One projected improvement is a north-south connecting highway that will have AJ as its northern terminus.

Our speaker today was Bruce Tunnicliff, Director of Safety and Security at Casino Arizona. He and our own Harvey Clark serve together on the Board of Infragard which is a collaborative partnership between the FBI and members of the private sector.

Casino Arizona invests heavily in safety and security measures because they are a big target with lots of money flowing through the casino. Much of Bruce's job involves training employee on how to respond to various threats such as an active shooter or an armed robbery. Casinos see a variety of crimes such as money laundering, credit card fraud, prostitution, drug dealing, theft and gaming scams. Casino Arizona works closely with The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI in reviewing the adequacy of the casino's preparation to deal with various threats. The cooperation with these agencies has been great according to Bruce. On a larger scale, some casinos abroad have been targets of terrorist attacks so how to respond initially to such an event also fall's under Bruce's authority.

In response to a question about why casinos allow smoking, Bruce shrugged his shoulders and said people who like to gamble also like to smoke, The casino has a non-smoking area but it is admittedly quite small.

1. Jay Jones announced the passing of PDG Glen Smith of the Payson Rotary club.

2. Sharon Stinard had two announcements:

a. CAAFA is relocating its outreach office to larger facilities at 879 N. Plaza Drive, Suite 101D in Apache Junction. There will be a ribbon-cutting event on August 8 at 11:00 am and all are welcome to attend.

b. The CAAFA fundraiser "Giddy Up Gala" will be held on Saturday, November 4 at the Rockin' R Ranch at 6136 E. Baseline Rd in Mesa. Tickets are $25.

3. Brian Kabat brought a banner from a Rotary club he visited recently.

4. The club has received an invitation to attend the Annual United Way of Pinal County Community Appreciation Dinner on Friday September 15 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. They would like our club to become a Community Sponsor. We need to discuss this at the next Board meeting.

5. Bob Benjamin won the drawing today and pocketed $10. But he drew the 6 of hearts so the joker continues its elusive ways. The pot was worth $244 today.

Our speaker today was Sophia Wahlgren. Sophia is a Pinal County Youth Program Career Planner based at the Central Arizona College campus in Apache Junction. She is a political science graduate from ASU.

The Arizona @ Work Pinal County Youth Program offers education and training to help out-of-school and income-eligible applicants become gainfully employed. Youth ages 16-24 are eligible. The Youth Program provides these services:

1. Help in obtaining a HS diploma or GED,

2. Paid work experience

3. Support services to help reach career goals

4. Work readiness and money management training

5. Assistance with tuition and books

From an employer perspective, businesses can become a site for the On-the-Job-Training program. This program helps a participant develop the skills required for a particular position in the company. It combines instruction with work experience. Eligible businesses can receive up to 75% in wage reimbursements for the selected positions. Businesses may also qualify for the Work Opportunity Tax Credit available to employers for hiring individuals from certain target groups.

For more information, contact Sophia at 480-677-7710 or sophia.wahlgren@centralaz.edu.

We welcomed visiting Rotarians Lee and Roberta Holmes from Clive, IA (a suburb of Des Moines). They are members of the Waukee, IA Rotary club. The Holmes recently bought a home in Gold Canyon. We also welcomed Bill Staples who was a guest of Jacquie Smith.

Want to find out who is scheduled to speak at our club? Click on the link above labeled "List of Scheduled Speakers (and Past Speakers)", then click on the link at the bottom of that page that will bring up the 2017-18 speaker schedule. Scroll to the date you are interested in.

Otis was Len LaFlesch's dog and companion. After a long, good life, Len recently had to have Otis put to sleep. Bob Benjamin noted that Otis was a fixture at our club's water table during the lost Dutchman 8 K Trail Run. Thank you Otis for your service to Len and to the club.

Len LaFlesch gave a humorous presentation of how President Ed had been a "hands-on President". Len used the words "hand" or "hands" in 25 or more sayings that described Ed's presidency.

Then Harvey Clark presented Ed with a plaque of thanks from the club for Ed's service.

President Ed then went around the room naming each member and mentioning some of their contributions to the success of our club. It was impressive to see the depth of his knowledge of the membership and the way they serve. Finally, Ed gave us a list of things he thinks would be beneficial to the club in the coming year.

1. Advertise our future speakers (ala Mike Dungan above)

2. Be on a committee. Chair or co-chair a committee

3. Volunteer to work at our service projects and fund raisers

4. Be generous as a donor

5. Find a speaker

6. Add more service projects - fall event?

7. Put on socials for club members and spouses - Maybe a comedy hour (Dave Webb?)

8. Maybe support the efforts of the Gilbert club to bring home water sources to Navajo people

Our speaker today was Tina Slankis, Deputy Director of the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for the city of Phoenix. She has spent over 20 years as a leader in the fields of information technology and cybersecurity. She has a BS degree in mathematics from the U. of AZ and an MS in information and telecommunication systems from Johns Hopkins University. Tina has worked in various technology roles for the U.S. Air Force at the Pentagon, for Lucent Technologies, for Wells Fargo Banks and for Freeport McMoran Mining Co. prior to taking her position with the City of Phoenix. Her topic today is "Cybersecurity".

By cybersecurity" she means "measures taken to protect a computer or a computer system against unauthorized access or attack." Almost everyone in the world is connected to the Internet in some way and some businesses such as Ally Bank exist only on the Internet.

People who do this kind of mischief fall into three broad categories:

1. Criminals (46% of attacks) - they are out to make money. Their major weapon is Ransomeware that locks up your files unless you pay a ransom to free them (which isn't guaranteed). For examle, Lake Havasu City had its entire governmental structure locked up by ransomeware.

2. Hacktivists (33% of attacks) - many are out to promote their political cause by getting publicity through their attacks. This group also include people who see a challenge in breaking into someone else's system.

3. Nation States (21% of attacks) - much of this is industrial espionage but it also includes attempts to gain access to military systems and infrastructure systems like power, water and telecommunications.

How do these people get ransomware viruses into your computer or computer system?

1. Via email messages - they are very clever about making real-looking emails that look like it came from your bank or insurance company or your ISP or FedEx or whatever. This is called "Phishing" and they are looking for you to provide personal information in reply to the email. Verify if you are in doubt by calling the company.

2. Watering hole attacks - a web site is infected with a virus so whoever visits the website is automatically infected by the virus.

3. Mal advertising - urgent messages that appear on your computer screen saying your computer is infected. NEVER click on this malware or you will be in deep trouble.

4. Denial of Service attacks - people link a large number of computers together into a "botnet" that then can send an overwhelming number of requests to your business that blocks out usage by anyone else.

5. And many others - there are new ones every day.

The best and only way to protect your information from ransomware is to back it up regularly to an external hard drive or to the cloud. THIS IS A MUST FOR ALL USERS WHO WANT TO PROTECT THEIR FILES! Get in the discipline of doing this frequently.

The number of devices that are connected to the internet is growing rapidly. It has been called the "Internet of Things". Your home (thermostats, security systems, etc.), your car (GPS system, phone, etc.), your cell phone or tablet (Wi-Fi, location devices, etc.) are examples. Each one provides a potential portal for access by hackers.

What do you do if you have been hacked?

1. Disconnect your device from the internet.

2. Have your hard drive wiped clean by a professional.

3. Re-install your data from your backed up files.

4. Report the problem to law enforcement. In AJ, that is the city police. Or to agent Paul Schaaf of the FBI (Paul.Schaff@ic.fbi.gov or 623-466-1241).

Thank you Tina for a very interesting (and troubling) presentation and for driving all the way from downtown Phoenix to give this outstanding presentation.

Dean Holmes graciously agreed to be our speaker on the spur of the moment. He told us some anecdotes of his time as Mayor of Miles City, MT. Dean had a friend who was always complaining about the school board. Dean laid out a challenge to his friend that if the friend would run for the School Board, Dean would run for mayor. Dean was 27 years old then and knew next to nothing about the mayor's job, but he went and filled out the papers and, after a door-to-door campaign, Dean was elected mayor. He found out later that his friend had never filled out the papers to run for the school board. Dean even had to ask where the City Council met.

Miles City people are conservative in their views. Dean mentioned the Bucking Horse Rodeo - a 3-day event that is Miles City's biggest events of the year. He got to ride on the back of a bison one year.

A couple of issues Dean mentioned were trying to stop the illegal dumping of garbage in the Yellowstone River (he succeeded) and finding the funds to upgrade the quality of the sewage treatment plant.

Dean put in 8 years as mayor and he always wore a white cowboy hat which was his trademark during those years.

1. Bob Benjamin announced that the Lost Dutchman Marathon won an award plaque for being the Apache Junction Chamber of Commerce Non-Profit of the Year for 2016. Bob brought the plaque to show the club.

2. Sharon Stinard read several Thank You Letters from seniors who received our $500 Rotary scholarships this year.

3. President Ed read a Thank You Letter from Jeff Downing, Director of the Gold Canyon United Methodist Church Food Bank, for the $500 contribution to the food bank last week.

4. Bryant Powell presented the list of officers and Board Members for 2017-18. They are:

President - Ed Shockley

President-Elect - Bryan Kabat

Treasurer - Len LaFlesch

Secretary - Jacquie Smith

Tracey Yamamoto - Director

Bryant Powell - Director

Matt Ruppert - Director

Aaron McDermid - Director and Sargent-at-Arms

Bob Crow - Director and Foundation Chair

It was moved by Larry Wight and seconded by Bob Homann to approve the slate as presented. The motion passed unanimously.

Thank you to all who have agreed to serve the club in this way.

5. Jim Erickson won the drawing and $10 but drew the 3 of clubs. So the pot grows.

Harold is well-known as one of the creative forces behind the original establishment of Gold Canyon as a community. Sandie is a former Pinal County Supervisor who has been an active advocate for Pinal County. Melissa is the newly-appointed Executive Director of the Pinal Partnership.

The mission statement for the Pinal Partnership is "To improve research, planning and coordination of private and public efforts related to infrastructure, natural resources and community development in Pinal County." The Partnership schedules monthly breakfasts on timely topics and provides a newsletter with updates on happenings throughout Pinal County and its cities and towns. The Partnership operates through committees whose titles provide a key to the interests of the Partnership:

Transportation and Infrastructure

Government Relations

Economic Development

Open Space and Trails

Education

Health and Human Services

Renewable Energy

Water Resources

Some areas that Harold and Sandie covered in their presentation were the possible extension of I-24, advocacy for a North-South highway through Pinal County, the new 800 home development in Peralta Trails, the AJ Banner Hospital, working to link the CAC educational system to the needs of incoming business and industries, zoning that affects open spaces and trails, the Resolution Copper mine and its impact on the area, the potential of Superstition Vistas and water resources. Pinal County is the fastest growing county in Arizona with great prospects for the future.

See the Pinal Partnership website at http://pinalpartnership.com for more information. There is a link on the site to begin receiving the e-newsletter and event announcements.

1. With Memorial Day just past, President Ed thanked all the club veterans for their service.

2. Bob Crow brought "Hellos" from Harell Miller and Steve Gable. We still have over 6,000 recognition points and can recognize additional local people for their service to the communities.

3. Harvey Clark brought back a trading banner from the Daytona West Rotary club and presented it to President Ed. Harvey was in Florida for family graduations.

4. Murray Hiatt described the Honor Flight Arizona he was on recently. The vets on board were WW II and Korean war veterans. He told how he was made to feel very special - people in the airports both coming and going broke out in applause for the vets as they went by. His group visited the major military memorials in D.C. and also Ft. McHenry in Maryland. There were 30 guardians on the flight accompanying the vets. The trip is free to the vets but the guardians pay $900. Murray said it is an experience he will never forget.

5. Mike Dungan brought us the News of the Day. His alma mater Oregon State U. is seeded #1 in the NCAA baseball world series. The team record is 49-6. LeBron James and Stephen Curry were born in the same hospital in Akron, OH three years apart.

Our speaker today was Ed Koeneman. Ed is a member of the Mesa West Rotary Club and served as the club's president. He is an electrical engineer who is teaching engineering classes at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix.

Ed's topic today is the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). He is president of the Palo Verde Chapter of the SAR located in the East Valley. There are 35,000 members of SAR worldwide. The organization started in New York in 1876 but the SAR split off in 1889 to become a national organization. To be eligible for membership, one must prove descent from a Revolutionary War veteran or a person involved in some other direct way in the support of the Revolution. Genealogy tracking is helpful in providing proof. Ed is related to Sgt. James Johnson whose name appears on the rolls of the Continental Army at Valley Forge in 1777.

The SAR promotes appreciation for military service and veterans. They sponsor Honor Flights, they volunteer at VA hospitals, they support Junior ROTC at high schools and ROTC at colleges, and they have a color guard in colonial uniforms that appear at veteran funerals and parades.

The SAR promotes knowledge of American history and heritage in cooperation with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. One new project is a study of the recently-discovered papers of King George III of England who was king during the Revolution. They hold essay contests for high school students, brochure contests for middle school students and poster contests for elementary students. They go into schools dressed in military uniforms from the Revolution and present programs for school kids. The uniforms can cost as much as $1,500-$2,000 and authentic reproductions of weapons can cost as much as $3,000-$4,000.

Gerry Hundt of the Board of the Apache Junction Food Bank sent along this clarification about who is eligible to be served at the AJ food bank.

"I enjoy getting your Rotary newsletter. I saw the recent one regarding the Gold Canyon Food Bank and wanted to correct something said there. The Apache Junction Food bank does NOT limit those we serve to only Apache Junction residents. In fact the boundary for our services are listed below and in fact if someone comes for help for the first time, they are given food and the boundary area explained to them along with referring them to a food bank in their area. As you know, I along with Ben Fellows are board members and I would love the opportunity to speak to the club if the opportunity happens."

"Requirement 1: Live within our service area

South Boundary - Ocotillo Road

West Boundary - Ellsworth Road

North Boundary - McDowell Road

East Boundary - Queen Valley

Requirement 2: Meet 185% of the Federal poverty guidelines, as established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and as determined by our Board of Directors.

Requirement 3: Provide a valid ID and a document that shows proof of residence. A utility bill or rent receipt will work. We simply need a current document showing your name and address."

Matt Ruppert, who has been a long time supporter of the GC-UMC Food Bank, introduced our speaker. Jeff Downing is retired from the Chevrolet

Division of General Motors. He and wife Harriet have been married for 49 years. They have 3 kids and 5 grandkids. He graduated from the Wharton School of Business and has been active in the local community including service on the ADOBE board and the Superstition Foothills HOA board.

Jeff told us that the Food Bank is the oldest of the Gold Canyon United Methodist Church's mission activities. It was started in 1997 so it is 20 years old this year. He has served as administrative manager for the food bank for the past 11 years. The Food Bank outgrew the available space in the church building, but they were fortunate to be able to buy the empty Red Sage restaurant as the new Food Bank location. It has a walk-in freezer and refrigerator. The building is more than a Food Bank since it has 4 major meeting rooms. Remodeling and clean-up work started in November of 2016 and opened for the first clients on May 17, 2017.

The Food Bank is affiliated with United Food Bank as one of 260 local food banks handled by that cooperative. Statistical studies show that nationally, 14% of people qualify as "food insecure" which means they do not have enough money to buy food for themselves and their family. In Arizona, that figure is 15%. In April of 2017, the GCUMC Food Bank served 692 people and distributed over 5,000 lbs of food. The clients are 65% from Apache Junction, 15% from Gold Canyon, 9% from Mesa and 11% from San Tan, Florence, Superior, Eloy and other regional communities.

Why is the UMC church Food Bank different from others?

1. Clients are not geographically restricted as is the case for example with the AJ Food Bank where one has to have residency in the city.

2. They allow visits twice a month whereas once a month is common among other food banks. The amount of food given is based on family size.

3. The volunteers try to learn the names of all the clients and treat them with empathy and a smile.

4. They have gluten free and sugar free foods available.

5. They do not give out out-dated foods.

6. They provide basic hygiene items like toothpaste and soap.

7. They provide cat and dog food for family pets.

8. Kids get a free book and a toy each time they come in.

9. They are an all-volunteer staff - there are no paid food bank employees.

Jeff listed a few of the "good" and "bad" donations. Good = toilet paper, tuna, Spam, pre-mixes like Hamburger Helper, baby formula, diapers, wipes, Vienna sausages and sardines. Bad = dented cans, exotic foods, out-of-date cans. If they don't get donations of needed supplies, they buy what they need, so cash donations are always welcome. The Food Bank is open 8:30 AM to Noon. Donations also come in at the Arts Council performances and Doug Benton's Artist Series. The food given out is typically a 3-day supply so 2 visits only cover food needs for 6 days out of a month.

They have a food trading relationship with the Genesis Project in Apache Junction. They have a resource handout that helps people locate needed services and service agencies.

At the end of the talk, President Ed Shockley presented Jeff with a check for $500 from the club.

We are very proud of Jeff and his volunteer staff of 50 and proud of all all the donors who give regularly to keep food supplies available. Thanks to all involved!

1. Bob Benjamin was presented with his PHF + 3 pin. The award is in partial recognition of the work Bob does serving as our club representative to the Lost Dutchman Marathon Committee and organizing our club volunteers for the 8K Trail Run.

2. President Ed Shockley announced that we have a $500 college scholarship to award to a student at Imagine Prep.

3. President Ed also announced that the Board approved the application of Cheryl Kramer for membership.

4. Aaron McDermid served as our Sargeant-at-Arms.

5. Len LaFlesch won the drawing and $10 but missed the joker. The pot today was worth $180.

Bob Crow celebrated his 88th birthday with wife Jennie Crow and friends at The Cheesecake Factory. Bob grew up in Georgia. He served in the U.S. Army. Much of his working career was with Sandia Corporation in New Mexico and California.

Bob serves the club as our Rotary Foundation chair. We think Bob is the oldest member of our club. Anybody want to argue that?

Our speaker today is Matt Hedrick of the Pinal County Sheriff's Office. Matt is the Deputy Chief for Detention Services. He grew up in Mesa and graduated from Mountain View High School. He has been a police officer for 18 years. Much of his career was as an officer on the San Carlos and Salt River reservation police forces since he is half Native American. He and his wife have 3 teenage children. Matt did a 2-year mission term in Chicago and it was a great experience for him.

Matt is in charge of the Pinal County jail. The jail has 1500 beds but currently there are only 498 inmates, 48 of whom are undocumented. ICE wants 500 beds at the Pinal County jail and would pay the county for them, but ICE insists on its own standards for incarceration which would put them in conflict with the existing way of doing things, so the Sheriff's office said "No" to ICE.

There are 146 employees at the jail. Aides handle the paper work related to admitting and releasing inmates, preparing court paper work, monitoring surveillance cameras, etc. Officers have contact with the inmates. Some have direct supervision which means they are in the inmate pods while they are on duty. Others have indirect supervision which means they enter the pods at certain times but do not stay in them. Matt is looking to hire 30 new officers.

With respect to undocumented aliens, the jail has 6 officers trained to work with ICE. Under 287g, the jail must release undocumented persons after 48 hours of detention if ICE has not come to the jail to pick them up. Some cities, counties and even states (Colorado) have declared themselves "sanctuaries" and they will not hold undocumented people at all for minor offenses.

The average stay in the jail is about 90 days as the person awaits a Superior Court trial. Post-trial, it is about 16 days as the paper work is cleared , etc. If the person is found guilty and sentenced, they stay in the jail with credit for time served but if the sentence is longer than 1 year, they are transferred to one of the state's prisons.

Matt is impressed with Wexford which supplies health care services to prisoners at the Yavapai County jail. He is exploring using them at the Pinal County jail.

There is a long section of U.S/Mexico border that runs along the south end of the Tohono Odom reservation. The tribe does NOT want a fence along its border so that is going to pose an interesting issue for THE GREAT WALL builders. People coming across through the reservation funnel directly into Pinal County.

Thanks Deputy Hedrick for being with us today and for your service to the people of Pinal County.

One visitors today was prospective member Cheryl Kramer from Dubuque, IA. Matthew Boswell from Ace Hardware was here representing his boss Brian Kabat. Todd Kopcha, our speaker, was a guest of the club. He was accompanied by his brother-in-law Greg Dean.

Harvey Clark introduced our speaker. Todd Kopcha is a special agent for the FBI from the PHX office. He has been with the FBI for 20 years. Todd heads the local Joint Terrorism Task Force.

He reminded us that the first ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in the U.S. took place in Phoenix. He is going to speak today about the ideological stance of ISIS and how to differentiate among the various forms of Islam in the world.

There are 1.4 million Muslims in the world. Seventy per cent are Sunnis and thirty per cent are Shiaas. Of the Sunnis, 95% are Sufis who tend to be less violent in their views than the other 5% who are Salafis. ISIS and El Qaeda are Salafist in orientation. The Taliban and the Muslim Brotherhood are from the Sufi tradition.

The Salafis believe that the only true form of Islam is that which follows the practices of the earliest believers. So they are very pious, believe states should be governed by Sharia law, wear beards, have certain clothing styles, etc. Those who don't follow their conservative views are considered apostates. ISIS believes in imposing Salafist views and monotheism by force. Taweed means "One (God)" and when you see pictures of ISIS fighters, they are often holding up one finger to symbolize one God. They see terror is a legitimate weapon in achieving their goals.

In July of 2014, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared himself the caliph of a new caliphate which included large swaths of Iraq and Syria that were predominantly Sunni areas of these countries. This is where the fighting is going on currently - e.g., Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria.

ISIS and other terrorist groups are very effective at using social media to spread their views and to recruit new adherents. They use You Tube, instructional videos, blogs, on-line forums and on-line magazines. Al Queda publishes "Inspire". ISIS published "Dabiq" which has now been retitled as "Rumiyah" since they lost control of Dabiq in Syria. Todd passed around downloads of these magazines and they are truly shocking in their content. The most effective recruiter of Americans is Anwar al-Awlaki who, even though he was killed by a U.S. air strike, continues to have an impact via his writings and his videos.

Program Chair Harvey Clark introduced our special speaker of the day, Michele Reagan, Arizona's Secretary of state. Michele is the youngest Secretary of State in the country. She served 12 previous years in the state legislature prior to becoming S.O.S.- 8 in the House and 4 in the Senate.

Arizona is one of only 3 states that do not have a lieutenant-governor. Rather, the Secretary of State is the de facto Lieutenant Governor and would replace a Governor vacancy as Jan Breuer did when Janet Napolitano left to become head of Homeland Security.

Michele has been spearheading the updating of the electronic systems and methods used by the S.O.S office. Some of the new developments:

1. Hackers - the S.O.S. computer systems experience 70,000 unwarranted hits per month. Her office has put additional security measures in place and they are assisting other S.O.S0'.s in upgrading their security.

2. Arizona archives - these records have now been digitized to provide easy access from home rather than having to come to downtown Phoenix. The records are available under the "Digital AZ Library" tab near the top of the Azlibrary.gov home page.

3. Political Contributions - Michele has developed a system for tracking political contributions for elections. You can learn who gave how much to what candidates. When asked about "dark money", she said 95% of the donations are transparent and the remaining 5% provide all the information they are required to provide under Federal law.

4. Petitions to get measures on the ballot - these start 18 months prior to the election. The S.O.S. is responsible for verifying signatures on the petitions. They compare the name of the signee with the voter lists.

5. Elections that don't end - lawsuits following an election drag out closure to some indefinite future date. The AZ legislature passed a law making "ballot harvesting" illegal. Ballot harvesting is the delivery of a person's ballot by a 2nd party to the polling station. The lawsuit is challenging the constitutionality of the law. It is currently at the US District court and may reach the Supreme Court.

6. On-Line voting - this is being tried by several states for the convenience of military people serving overseas. It is likely a long way off yet. Interestingly, on-line voting rules developed so far closely follow those developed for on-line banking.

7. Who sends out ballots? - it is the county recorders who do this, not the Secretary of States office.

Thank you so much Michele for your devoted service to the state and people of Arizona. Your leadership in updating the capabilities of the office is exemplary.

At the end of her presentation, Harvey Clark presented Michele with a club trading banner which she was happy to receive.

1. Bob Benjamin presented the club with a check for $2,000 for our participation in the 8 K Trail Run event during the Lost Dutchman Marathon. Bob and President Ed thanked the 17 volunteers and Ed thanked Bob for spearheading the club's participation in the event.

2. Jay Jones alerted the club to the upcoming vote at our May 17th meeting regarding approval of the updated Constitution and By-Laws. The two documents have been approved by our club Board of Directors but a vote by the membership is required. Jay has distributed the documents by email to members. If you need them, contact Jay or see them on our Club Runner website.

3. President Ed reminded us of the District Conference to be held in Flagstaff June 23-24. Seven club members are going so far.

1. Sharon recapped the awarding of Rotary Scholarships at the Awards Ceremony at Apache Junction High School. She, Larry Wight and Len LaFlesch were there representing the club and Dana Hawman took pictures. The awardees, each of whom received a $500 scholarship, were:

Dalton Combs

Beatriz De Santiago

Haylee Eckhardt

Diego Gonzales

Danae Liguori

Sean Mahoney

Olivia Marsala

Yanori Nava Porto

Shaylee Sipple

Ronaldo Venegas

Len found out that since 1978, our Rotary club has donated $138,000 in college scholarships - an amazing figure. Larry reported that community groups donated $91,400 this year in scholarships and if the college-source scholarships are figured in, the total is well over 1 million dollars.

2. Larry Wight was welcomed into our club as our newest member. Brian Kabat presented him with his Rotary pin.

3. Bob Homann was presented with his PHF + 8 pin by President Ed Shockley.

4. President Ed noted that several of our club member were at the Boys and Girls Club fund raiser. The event was successful in generating funds for the club.

Ed Shockley introduced today's speaker Warren Salinger. Warren came to the U.S in 1939 when his family fled Nazi Germany. He spent 1952-1958 in USAF intelligence interviewing German POWs and refugees returning to Germany from Eastern Europe. For the past 14 years following retirement, he has taught a "World Affairs Seminar" on Holland-America cruise ships, attracting as many as 500 attendees.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get the resort's projector to work off Warren's laptop so Brian Kabat held Warren's laptop over the podium for the duration of the talk.

The West (USA and Western Europe) have dominated the world economy since the Industrial Revolution. The West laid down the rules by which international trade is conducted, the organizations and agreements that make it work as well as the protection of international trade routes. However, we are now at a time in history when the West's total economic domination is eroding. The economies of Asian countries like China, India, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea have been growing rapidly; the new era has been called "The Rise of the Rest". It will be a period when no single country or group of countries will be dominant - rather the economy will be global in scope.

Globalization means the free movement of 1. Goods 2. Money 3. Technology 4. People. We have succeeded at 1-3, less so for 4. The growth of the global economy has brought one billion people around the world out of poverty and into a better life. Two major drivers of globalization were 1. the invention and application of the Charge-Coupled Device to convert optical images to electrical charges that can be transmitted across long distances (think cameras, satellite photos, TV pictures, internet photos, cell phones, etc.) and 2. containerization that made the movement of goods so much more rapid and efficient and the development of huge container ships (90% of world trade goes by sea). There are several choke points for ship-borne trade - the Straits of Malacca, the Straits of Hormuz, the Bosporus, and the Suez Canal. The Panama Canal has recently been widened to allow larger container ships so one choke point has been removed.

Warren thinks it was a bad move for the US to pull out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It will just open the door for more Chinese influence among Asian nations. Trade protectionist policies are also a dangerous way to go. The Smoot-Hawley Bill of 1930 raised tariffs on 900+ products coming into the US to "protect our country". Economists think the effects of this one bill lengthened the Great Depression by at least two years.

Our newest member is Larry Wight. Larry works as a real estate broker and auctioneer for Lori Blank & Associates.

Larry was a Rotarian in the Valley Center, CA club before joining our club. Larry's wife's name is Paula and they live in San Tan Valley. Len LaFlesch is Larry's club sponsor. Welcome to our club Larry! We look forward to great things from you. Larry already participated in the presentation of the Rotary Scholarships at the AJ High School along with Len and Sharon Stinard.

Rosie Holmes was a guest of club member Dean Holmes. Our speaker Carey Dickerson was a guest of the club. Van Van Jepmond (R.C. of Lacey, WA) and prospective member Larry Wight were visiting Rotarians as were Art Hergatt and Bob Dolsen. Last week, speaker Tina Miller was a club guest and Martha McNair of Apache Junction was a visitor. Larry Wight was a visiting Rotarian from the Valley Center Rotary Club (CA).

2. AJ Chamber of Commerce Executive Larry Johnson showed off the new business map of Apache Junction. Our club is one of the map's sponsors and is recognized as such in the box that Larry is pointing to.

3. Len LaFlesch circulated via email a picture of the sponsor sign at the new Flatiron Park in Apache Junction. The club made a $10,000 contribution toward the Splash Pad in the park

4. Ed Shockley will be starting PT this afternoon following the Board meeting. He will have to miss a number of weeks but has made arrangements for past presidents to fill in for him.

5. Ed welcomed Bob Dolsen back to our fellowship after a stint in the hospital.

6. Aaron McDermid served as our Sargeant-at-Arms and raised fines "for the children".

7. Ed Shockley mentioned that today is the anniversary of the bombing of the Murraugh Federal building in Oklahoma City. Ed lost some good friends in that terrible event.

8. Len LaFlesch won the drawing and $10 but missed the joker. The pot was worth $116.50.

Our speaker today was Carey Dickerson, a volunteer with Hospice of the Valley who has been on their community speakers' bureau for 5 years.

Hospice of the Valley has been in existence since 1977. It is a non-profit type of hospice - many of the others are for-profit organizations. They have a larger number of staff with national certification than most hospice providers.

To be eligible for Hospice Palliative Care programs, the patient and family and doctor have previously agreed to stop trying curative treatments and the doctor has estimated that the patient has less than 6 months to live. Under these conditions, Medicare will pay for hospice palliative care at home that seeks to alleviate painful suffering and to provide for the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the patient and the patient's family. Hospice of the Valley can provide prescription medicines and medical equipment like hospital beds for home use and walkers and wheel chairs. HOV offers 24/7 telephone support to talk with a live nurse or social worker for advice and directions.

Another program offered is Arizona Palliative Health Care which is for people with a chronic health care condition but who are expected to live two years or more. It is similar to the 6-month program but it is not paid for by Medicare. One type of care is for people with Alzheimer's disease.

How does one get approved for services from Hospice of the Valley? 1. Call them at 602-530-6900 2. Have an informational visit in your home 3. Get your doctor's approval to place you in hospice care.

Our speaker today was Hailey Garland, Youth Development Coordinator for the AJ Boys and Girls club. She has been with the club for 3 years. Hailey thanked our club for helping make the splash pad at the new AJ park possible - she knows her B & G Club kids will make good use of it.

The B & G Club serves about 80-90 students in the age range of 5-18. It is an after-school program Mon-Thur but it is open all day Friday when AJUSD students are off due to the 4-day school week. The club is a safe place, a fun place, an educational place for students to be after school. The students spend 1 hour doing their homework in reading, writing, math, science or history. They are always looking for volunteers to work with the kids on their learning tasks. The club will soon be adding fine art to the list of opportunities for kids. Older students (13-18) also mentor younger students which is helpful to the staff. .

The B & G Club provides an evening meal for the students M-F since many of them come from needy, low-income families. Hailey encouraged Rotary club members to support the B & G club through sponsorships. Donation of sports equipment is always appreciated, even used equipment if it is in good shape. She spent most of her time answering questions from the floor.

At the end of her presentation, acting President Matt Ruppert presented her with a check for $1,000 from our club.

We had only one guest today - our speaker Hailey Garland from the Boys and Girls Club. We still have a handful of our regular Rotarian winter visitors with us - John Ewing from South Dakota, John Rain from Iowa, Bob Dolsen from Michigan and Art Hergatt from Ohio.

Last week we had one visiting Rotarian - Tom Halazon from the Columbia Center Rotary club in Pasco WA. Larry Wight was a guest, as was last week's speaker Mannie Bowler from the Pinal County United Way.

City Manager Bryant Powell brought us up to date with some happenings in Apache Junction. The Flatiron Community Park will be inaugurated on April 22 from 5:00-8:30 PM. Our club donated $10,000 toward the splash pad in the park.

The Pinal Regional Transportation plan proposes a north-south freeway connecting US 60 in Apache Junction with US 10 in Eloy. The US 60 link would be at Mountain View Road. There is a public hearing on the proposed route on Thursday, March 23rd at the MultiGen Center in AJ from 5:00-9:00 PM. There is no Gold Canyon bypass in ADOT's current 5-year plan but what is planned is an extension of US 24 from Mesa-Gateway Airport east to join Ironwood Rd. The AJ City Council has approved a closure plan for the landfill. It will remain open for the next 17 years but then a new landfill site will have to be found. Construction on the Fry's Marketplace store is proceeding. There will be several other businesses located next to Fry's as well. AJ is considering an 0.5% sales tax increase.

Thanks Bryant for being a dynamic force for positive changes in Apache Junction and for your membership in our club.

1. President Ed has appointed Len LaFlesch as our new club Treasurer. He will help Jandi with her various Rotary bookkeeping tasks.

2. Jack Beveridge is looking for sponsors and donations for the 7th Annual Power of Wellness Luncheon on April 27th. You can also donate to their Foundation and receive AZ tax credits for your donation up to $800 per couple. The Foundation will help pay for people to attend the luncheon. Contact Jack with questions or donations.

3. The club presented Paul Harris Fellow awards to Chief Paul Bourgeois of Superstition Fire and Medical and to Chief Tom Kelly of the Apache Junction Police Department. Both awards were for the excellence shown by their organizations and their leadership in providing public safety services to our communities. The presentation was made by AJ City Manager and club Past-President Bryant Powell.

4. Mike Dungan brought us the news of the day.

5. Aaron McDermid raised fine money "for the children".

6. President Ed announced he will be gone for the next 3 weeks to have shoulder surgery and physical therapy. Several past presidents will fill in for him while he is recovering.

7. The drawing was worth $67 today. Alex Blais won the drawing and $10 but drew the ace of hearts.

Harvey Clark introduced our speaker of the day Joan Marlow of "Peaceful Easy Healing". Joan's topic was "5 Simple Tools to Jumpstart a Lifetime of Health and Well-Being".

The Five tools are:

1. Be an observer in your own life - stop 3 times a day and observe what's happening in your body and mind. See if you can identify some of your personal stressors.

2. Decide what you can control and what you can't, know the difference and act. Sort you findings from step 1 into two columns - "what you can control" and "what you can't control".

3. Where the mind goes, the body follows so let's keep our minds positive. Note what people, topics, activities, things move you from being positive. Take control and act to rectify them. Surround yourself with positive people.

1. Beer Sales Results - Mike Cowan reported via email that this year's Lost Dutchman Rodeo beer sales were $22,385 and tips were $2,112. This is about 20% less than last year's record sales but cooler temps meant fewer sales.

2. Jack Beveridge announced the 7th Annual "Power of Wellness" luncheon to be held April 27, 2017 at the Phoenix Biltmore Hotel from 11:00 to 1:00. Jack is looking for business sponsorships for the event which range from $500 for a "Friend" sponsor to $10,000 for a "Platinum" sponsor. He also needs raffle prizes and silent auction prizes. He is hoping the club will become a sponsor at some level and that members will consider donating business sponsorships and prizes. Jack introduced his son Deke who joined Jack at our meeting.

We had four visiting Rotarians from the Strathcona, AB Canada Rotary Club - Lloyd and Bernice Hilderman and Walter and Elaine Romaniuk. Don Mintz from the Calgary South Rotary club and Tom Halazon from the Columbia Center Rotary Club of Pasco, WA were other visiting Rotarians. Moncho McGrew, Deke Beveridge (Jack's son) and Joan Marlow (our speaker) were guests.

Terry Lubsen is the chair of the Rotary Global Grants in the State of Sonora program. All three AZ districts participate in this program. Terry reports regularly on progress in the District newsletters.

Thirty to forty per cent of people in Sonora live at the poverty level. The microcredit program is one of the most successful poverty reduction programs available worldwide. Rotary global grants and donations from individuals and clubs provide the working capital. A local Mexican bank (FinReg S.A.) then makes small business loans from the invested capital. The typical first loan is for $400-$600 but this may increase in later cycles to $1,500. Borrowers are organized into borrowing groups of 4-12 people that are collectively responsible for seeing that individuals pay off their loans. Ninety per cent of the borrowers are women. Some small businesses that have been started include a taco stand, an empanada making shop, a costume jewelry maker and a dress maker. So far, there have been 855 Mexican borrowers helped by this program. Some of the positive results from having more family income are kids go to school, families eat healthier meals, living conditions are improved and financial anxiety is lessened. The beauty of this system is that the initially-loaned money returns and can be loaned out again. In 10 years since 2007, FinReg has loaned over $150,000,000 pesos and has successfully collected 97-98% of the loans made.

If you would like to help by making a donation, email Terry at MexicoMicrocredit@gmail.com or call him at 480-699-9649. Contributions get Paul Harris credit. Groups of 10 people can take donor tours to see the micro credit loans in action.

Visiting Rotarians today were Don Mintz and Len Hamm, both from the Calgary South Rotary club, George Hudson from the Burntisland/Kingholm (Scotland) Rotary Club and our speaker Terry Lubsen from the San Tan Crown Rotary Club. Our guests were Gary Galinat from Pierre, SD and Gary Clem from Gold Canyon.

1. George Hudson from the Burntisland/Kinghorn Fife Rotary Club (Scotland) exchanged trading banners with President Ed Shockley.

2. President Ed presented Terry Lubsen with a check for $500 to be used for the Sonora, MX microcredit projects.

3. Ron Knies spoke for Rodeo Chair Mike Cowan who was taking a much-needed rest from a very long weekend. Ron thanked the 50 volunteers who participated - especially the spouses, friends and winter visitors - who made this fund raiser a success again this year. Sales were good ($25,000 gross?) but down some from last year due to cooler weather.The tip jar response was very strong. More financial details later.

4. Bob Homann announced that there are lots of pictures of recent club events (Social, Golf, Rodeo) posted on the Club Runner home page. Check the right hand side at the top for a list and click on the album name to see the photos.

5. THE JOKER WAS FOUND!! Ben Fellows drew the winning ticket and $10 and then proceeded to draw the joker. The pot was worth $464.50. Congratulations Ben!

One of Jeff's goals is to explore ways in which the various communities surrounding Apache Junction might cooperate to the mutual benefit of all of them. He listed Gold Canyon, Lost Dutchman Heights, Superstition Foothills and the Museum/Mining Camp/Goldfield Ghost Town areas that surround AJ but are all independent. What are the pros and cons of trying to be more integrated? We have a potential community of 50,000 which would make us the same size as Yuma or Flagstaff and give us more political and economic clout. And the surrounding communities would benefit from more localized AJ police and fire protection, sewer system, water system and trash removal. Pinetop-Lakeside is an example of two communities benefitting from common governmental services but retaining their own identities.

AJ is trying to re-interest developers in the Superstition Vistas property south of US 60. It will likely be developed in stages via smaller purchases of land than was originally envisioned. Jeff thinks we could use a larger Conference Center-Resort to bring in more conferences. Southern Avenue could be run through to get a second route of access to Gold Canyon. The proposed bypass is long in the future.

Bryant and Jeff spoke of the opening of the Lost Dutchman Park for which the club provided a $10,000 grant. The grand opening will be on April 22nd.

1. President Ed exchanged trading banners with Jim Nelson, one of our winter visitors, who is a DG from District 6420 in Illinois.

2. Bob Benjamin presented the club with a plaque honoring our participation in the Lost Dutchman Marathon. This year's volunteers had to deal with mud and rain but they persisted and the 8K was a success as usual.

3. Mike Cowan reported that the staffing for all shifts of the Lost Dutchman Rodeo is now complete. Mike and Ron Knies handed out ID badges for volunteers.

4. President Ed reported that club member Ben Fellows asked the club on behalf of the AJ Food Bank for a $3,000 grant to provide milk for kids over the summer months. The club donated $2,200 toward the goal of $3,000.

5. Aaron McDermid raised some fines "for the children".

6. The drawing was worth $436 today. The winning number was held by our visiting Rotarian Jim Nelson. He won $10 but missed the joker.

You have taken some pictures at a Rotary event and would like to create a photo album and upload it to our Club Runner home page. Here's how to do it.

To create a photo album:

1. Go to superrotary.com home page.

2. Click on "Member Area" and enter it using your Club Runner password.

3. Under "Website Manager", click on "Edit Photo Albums".

4. Click on the red "Add" button on the right side.

5. Fill out the form that appears with your album title, description of the event and date of the event. Click on "Save".

6. This will bring up a page titled "Upload Photos to [your album name]"

7. Click on the "Add Files" button at the bottom left.

8. Find the stored photos you want to add to the album. Click on "Open". Note: you can add several photos at a time by holding down "Crtl" as you select them. Then hit "Open".

9. When you have opened all the pictures, click on the "Start Upload" button. The progress of uploading will show for each picture. When they are all uploaded, you will get a screen that says "Upload Completed". Your album is now listed in the Photo Albums List.

To create a link to your album on the home page (recommended for easy access by others).

1. Click on "Website"

2. Click on "Website Content"

3. Click on "Home Page Photo Albums"

4. Click on "Photo Albums Widget"

5. Click on "Add Photo Album from Library"

6. Click in the box next to your photo album name

7. Click on "Add Selected Album"

8. This brings up the "Photo Albums for Home Page" screen.

9. Click in the box next to your album name

10. Click on "Add Selected"

11. This will bring up the "Add Photos to Home Page" screen

12. Click in the box next to your album name

13. Click on "Add Selected Photo Album" Your photo album name will now appear on the "Photo Albums for Home Page" list.

14. Verify that it has been added to the home page under "Photo Albums".

The Board met following the February 15 weekly meeting. Some issues discussed/decided:

1. We want to give honorary Paul Harris awards to some local people for their contributions to our communities and exemplification of the ideals of Rotary. The club has thousands of available PHF recognition points to do this. Some names suggested: Paul Bourgeois (Fire Chief), Tom Kelly (Police Chief), Lucy Young (former AJ School board member), George Hoffman (former AJ City Manager), Ed Barker (AG/GC News editor), Tom Kollenborn (local historian). If club members have ideas for others, submit them to President Ed. It is a great way to increase visibility of our club.

2. The board authorized Jandi Morgan (our bookkeeper) to prepare the club's tax reports including filing a late 990EZ due in November.

3. Board agreed to have Carlo send an invoice for Jandi's service with the weekly lunch bill.

4. The club will ask for the $100 grant from District under the Rotary Public Image project. We will use it to buy club advertising on Facebook.

We need to get more info out to the papers re our doings in the community.

5. The Board turned down a request to provide housing for a Rotary exchange student. This program has gotten entangled in lots of bureaucratic procedures including some meant for the protection of the incoming student, but difficult to live up to on a daily basis.

6. Homann was asked to publish the procedure for how pictures can be posted on our Club Runner website. Lots of people take pictures at our events.

Paula Blessman gave me two corrections from my write up of her presentation. One is that the experimental farm is 120 acres, not 20 acres. More importantly, the date of the Rotary visit to South Africa is September 14-26,2017. If interested in going on this trip, talk to Paula. You will be most welcome.

Harvey Clark introduced our speaker for the day, Brian Brotschi from Symantec. His topic was "How to Stay Safe Online".

Brian said trust is the big issue in being online. Do you believe the person you are dealing with is who they say they are? Why do you believe they are or might not be?

He gave us 5 suggestions to be safe online.

1. Look for the green stripe validating your service provider - never give out personal information if it is not there. (I have never seen it on my computer - editor)

2. Use your bank's app on your smart phone - it is highly encrypted

3.Use two stage authorization - passwords alone are notoriously easy to crack. A second authorization such as a picture or a fingerprint or question is good policy for the website provider.

4. Password procedures - use strong passwords - long with caps, numbers and symbols. Don't use the same password for different accounts - it makes more of you information accessible if the PW is hacked. Consider using a PW vault like Last Pass.

5. Use a chip credit card - replace you swipe credit cards with this new, more secure technology.

Paula participates in two volunteer organizations that are active in the Republic of South Africa, specifically in Limpopo Province in the northeast part of the country. One is Blessman Ministries, Inc. (BMI) founded by Dr. Jim Blessman and his wife Beth and headquartered in Urbandale, IA. This organization has been active in South Africa since 2004. They provide nutritional food packs ("Meals from the Heartland") to 7,500 students daily. They also supply thousands of donated eyeglasses and shoes. Providing farming education and fresh produce are also BMI goals. They run a 20 acre research farm in cooperation with Iowa State University and the University of Limpopo. Current new goals are to provide safe water supplies and flushless toilets for rural schools. BMI provides jobs for local people in construction, well drilling, farming and micro credit projects like sewing, baking and construction.

The other organization in which Paula is active is Days for Girls International which was started in 2008. She is a team leader for Team Cedar Rapids, IA. This volunteer group makes and distributes feminine hygiene kits. Dr. Blessman and wife Beth and other volunteers (Paula included) teach girls in south Africa about reproductive health and hygiene. Days for Girls has reached over 400,000 women and girls in 100+ countries.

If you would like to help Days for Girls, here's how. Volunteer at home or during local workshops to make kit components and assemble kits. Donate supplies or money. Pray for the success of the effort. Go to South Africa as a volunteer (a Rotarian outreach event is planned for September 24-26, 2017). For more information, speak to Paula or go to www.blessmanministries.org. There is an online donation option at the website. You can also donate by using Amazon Smile or Thrivent Choice Dollars.

1. President Ed Shockley introduced Kailia Lavato, a student who was granted a college scholarship by the Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona. Our club is her sponsor.

She is enrolled in the Certified Nursing Assistant program at East Valley Medical College in Gilbert. The RVFA is a program to help ambitious people better their earning potential through vocational education. Last year we sponsored another local student - Rosita Raby - through the same certified nursing assistant program.

2. The club is interested in providing school supplies for Peralta Trail Elementary School. If you would like to help, talk to President Ed.

3. The drawing was worth $360 today. Dean Holmes won the drawing and $10 but missed the joker.

We had 3 visiting Rotarians today - John Millard, Bill Ohe and Carl Simonson. Kailia Lavato who is sponsored by our club through the Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona was our guest as was our speaker for the day - Tanya Hughes from SRP.

Our speaker today was Lisa Marshall, owner of Gold Canyon Hearing in the Basha's Plaza shopping center. Lisa has been in the hearing industry for 15 years - 6 years in Gold Canyon.

One in five people have a hearing loss. The most common forms are high frequency hearing loss and tinnitis.

Some causes of hearing loss are high blood pressure, diabetes, work-related noises, osteoporosis and aging. Also, two hundred medicines are known to negatively affect hearing. Hearing loss can lead to balance problems and to social isolation. Lisa gives hearing tests and bone conduction tests to assess a person's hearing ability. The technology continues to evolve - 24, 48 and even 64 channels are available. The cost of hearing aids depends on how sophisticated a system you want to purchase. Good intro level hearing aids can be had for $1,500 to $2,500. Blu-Ray systems now can send sound direct to hearing aids from a TV or in a public space like a church. Lisa recommends that each person who is noticing hearing problems take charge of their situation and get a hearing test done.

Lisa volunteered at the end of her talk to help out the club at the Lost Dutchman Rodeo Days. Way to go Lisa!

Today we heard from Tina Gerola of Superstition Fire and Medical regarding how to deal as bystanders with sudden cardiac arrest.

Sudden cardiac arrest is not the same thing as a heart attack. During a heart attack, the person is usually conscious and expressing pain. It is due to problems with the heart muscle or arteries and the flow of blood around the body is diminished. Sudden cardiac arrest, on the other hand, is the loss or disruption of the electrical impulses that cause the heart to beat. The person collapses and is not aware of what is going on. Bystanders should follow these steps: 1) designate someone to call 911. You need to know the physical address where you are. 2) designate someone to get the automated external defibrillator (AED). 3) immediately begin chest compressions at the rate of 100 per minute. This is tiring work so have a team of people ready to relieve each other. Time is critical - there is a 10% loss in survival rate for every minute that goes by without compressions.

Have someone turn on the AED. It talks to you - follow the instructions. Remove clothing from the waist up so the two pads can be applied at the right spots. The AED will analyze the heart rhythm and determine if a shock is needed. If it is, clear people away from the person and apply the shock per the AED's directions. The machine will tell you whether to do a second shock or not.

An AED costs $1,500 and can be purchased through Superstition Fire and Medical. Hopefully, someone's life may be saved because of this information Tina gave us today. Thank you Tina!

Our visitors today included Dan Maher of the Rotary Club of Waxahachie, TX. Dan is a former president of our club and he was here playing in our golf tournament with his sons. Jim and Carol Luoma were here from the Cohasset, MN Rotary Club. Aubrie Gile was a guest as was our speaker Tina Gerola.

2. Mike Cowan needs 27 more volunteers for the Feb 24-25-26 Lost Dutchman Rodeo. He passed around a sign up sheet. We need to get some of our younger members involved. This is one of our two largest fund raisers - it brought in $10,000 last year.

3.Bob Benjamin is rounding up volunteers for the Lost Dutchman Marathon. Our duty is the 8 K trail run early Sunday morning, February 19. It's an early start but you will be done by mid morning. Volunteers act as course marshalls and also give water to runners.

4. Next week, the club will meet in the main dining room. We will have Tina Gerola from Superstition Fire and Medical here to demonstrate modern CPR technique. You are encouraged to bring your spouse, kids, friends, etc.

5. President Ed is looking for someone to step up and be President-Elect and serve as President after July 1. Ed is planning on going back to work and won't be able to take a second year. The new person will be trained at PETS in late February. If interested, contact Ed.

6. Jacquie Smith won the drawing and $10 but drew the queen of spades. The pot was worth $273. It was Jacquie's birthday today so it was appropriate that she won.

Our scheduled speaker did not show today so Jay Jones filled in on short notice.

Jay told us about his father, J. Richard Jones, custom tailor. His Dad didn't finish high school. He apprenticed himself as a tailor and eventually graduated from the Custom Tailors' and Designers' School in New York City. He got into the business of making riding clothes when Ft. Riley, KS was the U.S. Army Cavalry School. He knew and made clothes for many of the old cavalry officers - George Patton, Jonathon "Skinny" Wainwright, "Jumpin' Joe Stillwell, etc. He traveled to horse shows around the U.S. He knew and made riding clothes for Ronald Reagan before and during his term in the White House. All Reagan's riding clothes in the movie "Stallion Road" were made by Jay's Dad. He sewed the riding habits for the 1951 U.S. Olympic equestrian team. The woolens for the clothes came from England and chamois skin from France were used inside the calves of riding breeches.

When Jay was a sophomore in college studying engineering he wasn't doing too well academically. He suggested to his Dad that he drop out of college and join him in the tailoring business. His Dad picked up his large cutting shears and threatened to cut off one of Jay's fingers if he quit. Jay ended his talk by expressing his profound admiration for his Dad and the shaping influence he had in Jay's life.

1. Jim Dokken presented President Ed Shockley with a banner from his home club of High River in Alberta, Canada.

2. The club is looking into buying a portable amplification system for our meetings since it sometime hard to hear our speakers (and each other).

3. There are two celebrations of the 100th anniversary of The Rotary Foundation. One is January 28 sponsored by the Scottsdale Rotary Club. This is a family event. You can get tickets on line. The other is also on January 28 and is sponsored by the District. See the district website for more info. Jay Jones urged us to attend it.

4. Mike Munion announced there would be a meeting of the Golf Committee following this meeting. We still need raffle prizes and silent auction prizes. Len LaFlesh mentioned that he had a list of golf courses in AZ and their phone numbers. He encouraged us to call some of them to see if we can get donations of foursomes, twosomes, bags, a club, a shirt, golf balls, whatever.

5. Mike Cowan said Lost Dutchman Days is coming up February 24-25-26, 2017. He needs lots of extra help this year, particularly in the evenings. He passed around a sign up sheet for volunteers. You can have your last-year's slot if you want it.

6. President Ed mentioned that Tina Gerola from SF&M will be here January 18 to teach us about modern CPR techniques. Feel free to bring a spouse or friends to the session.

7 Matt Ruppert read a Thank You letter from the family who received our donation to the "Folds of Honor" foundation (see below):

8. The drawing today was worth $253. I don't recall who won it, but the person who did got $10 but did not draw the Joker.

Chris gave a humorous presentation that challenged our beliefs about interest rates, Trump, oil's future, receiving advice, growth rates, etc. It was a presentation difficult to sum up other than to say it was fun and very informative.

Our speaker was Past District Governor Don Kelley on the topic "The Purpose-Driven Student: Improving Low-Income Pupils' Graduation Rates". Don is Professor Emeritus of Engineering from Arizona State University. Over the year's Don developed an innovative teaching style that transfers learning responsibility from teachers to students. His method involves using positive peer pressure as experienced in small learning groups. It is based on two human needs - being accepted and loved and gaining self esteem and confidence based on successful achievement. It has been successful in getting students to develop goals for themselves and to stay in school longer so they can achieve these goals. Don regularly taught an eight-week summer course for minority students. A 3-year follow-up study showed that 83% of the participants were still in school or had graduated.

1. Jack Beveridge invited any club member to come to help hand out turkeys at the Empowerment for Life Foundation turkey raffle. It will be held at 9 AM Wednesday, December 21. Meet behind the two-story brown building at the corner of Apache Trail and Ocotillo.

2. Bob Homann announced that Bob Crow is out of the hospital and anxious to get back to our club meetings.

4. There will be a Board meeting on December 21 following the meeting.

5. Jared Gibbs gave a short vocational talk about his insurance agency.

6. Aaron McDermid served as Sargent-at-Arms and raised money for the children.

7. President Ed thanked Ben Fellows for his financial support of the Rotary micro-credit program in Nogales, Mexico.

8. Sharon Stinard won the drawing and $10 but drew the 7 of clubs. The pot was worth $187.50 today.

9. Paula Blessman presented President Ed with a banner from the Rotary Club of Polokwane, South Africa. The second picture shows Paula receiving it from the President of the Polokwane club and exchanging one of our club banners.

Our speaker today was new club member Dave Webb who gave a classification talk. Dave grew up in Paola, Kansas.

He attended a one-room school through 4th grade. It featured a well, an outhouse and real spankings. Dave's parents had 100,000 laying chickens and an egg business. Dave raised hogs so he always had pocket money from sales of those animals. For a while, he owned a carpet store. He felt if you were always scrupulously honest, people would be return customers and he led his business that way and was successful.

Now Dave is in the music industry as a promoter of dinner musical theater productions offered here at the Gold Canyon Resort. The business name is Sunland Promotions. He originally started out with the idea of presenting 80 different shows but has cut that back to 35. The most popular show is the one featuring music of the Beach Boys.

Dave is married to Mickey who works as a manager at Golden Sun RV park. They have a daughter who recently adopted a girl that she waited two years for. The Webbs believe in charitable giving to others and that is one reason he joined Rotary. Dave mentioned that his spikey hair is a marketing tool. People expect him to do anything and say anything and it gives him an entree' to speak with customers at his shows.

1. Today is the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor. President Ed asked all veterans to stand and identify their branch and when and where they served. He thanked all the vets for their service to the country.

2. Anyone attending the club social at Beveridges needs to pay Tammy or Ed $20 per person to cover costs. Ed handed out directions of how to get to Jack's home.

Our speaker was our own Jodi Ehrlich who agreed to give a classification talk on short notice when a speaker cancelled.

Jodi was born in Arizona to two parents who were educators. She shared some of the challenges in her life including having a leg run over (twice!) by a church van when she was a child that required two years of surgeries and rehab. and having a daughter injured in competitive gymnastics. Jodi completed her college degree at NAU in Finance with a minor in Psychology. She met her future husband Jeff in Flagstaff. They moved back to Apache Junction, Jeff finished his Education major and got a teaching job. Later he became a firefighter. She is a partner in TPG Tax 3 Accounting in Apache Junction. She is looking for ways to serve the community through Rotary. Thanks for stepping up Jodi!

The Coalition is working with students, parents and teachers at the high school, middle school and elementary school levels. Barb handed out the results of a survey done in 2014 in Pinal County. It asked for the reasons youth gave for using abused substances and also for not using them. The top 5 reason for using were: Have Fun, Get High, Deal with Stress, Other and Keep from Getting Sad. The top five reasons for not using were: Not Interested, Can Hurt Me, Parent Disapproval, Could Be Arrested and Morally Wrong. She also handed out a Coalition calendar of activities for 2016-17 that gave us specifics on how the Coalition operates and who they interact with. She mentioned that the average age when students begin drug experimentation is 13. Opioid pain killers are the substances most abused because they are easily accessible in the parents or grandparents medicine cabinets.

Barb asked club members to consider making a donation to the Coalition either as a club or as individuals. We are grateful the Coalition is helping prevent substance abuse and monitoring what is going on in the local schools.

2. Jack Beveridge announced the Empowerment for Life Foundation's Holiday Turkey Drive and encouraged club members to make money donations that will be used to purchase turkeys for the annual turkey raffle. Make your check payable to the Foundation. He also encouraged use of the AZ state tax credit to donate funds to the Foundation.

3. Mike Munion asked for club member support for our golf tournament. We need golfers (ask your friends to play), event sponsors, tee sponsors, drawing prizes and silent auction items. Every club member has an obligation to support this event in every way possible because it is one of our biggest fund raisers of the year.

4. Mike Dungan brought us the "News of the Day". One quip: "Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity." Also there were 3 million fewer votes cast in the recent election than in 2012 in spite of the population growth of the country.

5. Ed Shockley announced at Board meeting that we need volunteers to bring certain items to the holiday social - bags of ice, beer, wine, bottled water, plastic tableware and paper plates. Check with Ed if you can bring something.

6. The Board also discussed going to a model where we would have 3 meetings a month at the Resort and one social meeting a month at a home, business or restaurant/bar. The object being, to get to know each other better.

7. Brenda McCullogh won the drawing and $10 but drew the 7 of spades. The pot was worth $136 today.

This is the time of year when our winter visitor Rotarians begin to show up in large numbers at our club meetings. Longstanding friendships are renewed and new energy flows into the club. Some familiar faces spotted at recent meetings: Art Hergatt, Brenda McCullogh, John Ewing, Alex Blais, Don Tarrant, Cheryl Kramer, Sandy Eckert-Stewart and "Van" Van Jepmond.

1. This year is the 100th anniversary of the formation of The Rotary Foundation (that wonderful tool that allows Rotary to do so much good in the world) and also the 55th anniversary of the formation of our club. We will do some celebrating early in 2017.

2. Mike Cowan thanked the volunteers who helped at the Ranch Rodeo.

3. The Golf Committee will meet following next week's regular club meeting.

4. President Ed thanked the volunteers who helped on the Paint-A-Thon service project. Aaron McDermid brought employees from his State Farm Insurance Agency to help paint.

Mike began his talk by telling us of the importance to him of the "Declaration of Rotarians in Business and the Professions", a document that provides specific guidelines for the high ethical standards called for in the Object of Rotary.

Mike told us some aspects of his life story. He played semi-professional baseball, earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a masters in adult education, was in the 104th Division of the U.S Army in their intelligence group, worked many years in the electrical power industry and was a lobbyist for the electrical industry throughout his career at city, county and state levels of government. Later in life, Mike got his license as a securities advisor and started a new direction in his life for the last 25 years.

Mike is married to Diane and they have two children. Mike became a registered principal with LPL. Together Mike and Di run the Gold Canyon Private Client Services office on King's Ranch Rd. They spend countless hours counseling individuals and families on financial matters.

Mike credits Rotary as one of the strongest shaping influences in his life. Mike says "Rotary continues to be my strength during our service to others."

Good Afternoon! Monday was World Polio Day. Two United Nations agencies will support the Iraqi Ministry of Health in marking World Polio Day by launching a weeklong nationwide campaign to immunize Iraq’s children against the infectious viral disease. Thanks to the governments strong commitment and the hard work of frontline workers, no new polio cases have been reported in Iraq since April 2014. In May 2015, Iraq was removed from the list of infectious countries. Under the slogan, 2 drops can change a life, the 5 day campaign aims to reach an estimated 5.8 million children below the age of 5 in Iraq, regardless of previous vaccination status.

Now, I would like to take a few minutes to update everyone on our club year to date.

Thanks to all of the Club Members, Board members and Directors and Jim and Jay for being so attentive to Tonya Watson (DG), Steve Cervantes and Carol Kralicek (District 5510 Public Image Chair) that attended our regular meeting and Club Assembly/Board Meeting last week. We received some good input from both ladies and will take their ideas and advice into consideration.

Our Public Image Committee (Bob Homann, Jared Gibbs, Dana Hawman and Harvey Clark) has received kudos from the District 5510 Public Image Chair. We are on Facebook and you will see articles from time to time in the local newspapers that promote Rotary and our club.

Tracey and Heather are working on getting Interact back into the AJ High School. I am meeting with the principal at Imagine Prep tomorrow to offer a scholarship or two to deserving students.

So, we have capable board members, directors and seasoned Rotarians that are taking charge and getting it done. Not everyone on the committees was mentioned today but they are on top of it and working on your behalf. If there is a committee that appeals to your interests, help that chair person.

One of our newest members, Tammy Bricketto, is now our club’s treasurer. She will sit on the Board and keep us up to date on our club’s finances. Thank her for stepping up and assuming this very important position. Help her out if she has a question for you. At the moment Aaron, Len or myself are authorized to write out checks for the club. Tracey can write checks on the Interact account.

Aaron and his State Farm staff as well as one of our new members, Dave Webb, all stepped up and painted a home in AJ this past Saturday. They worked hard and really improved the looks of a local citizen’s home. Dave is actually able to climb a ladder and get some work done. They all did a great job and service for the community.

One of our potential service projects is volunteering a couple of hours to pack food to be sent to hungry school children around the world. Feed the Starving Children is an organization that has a large facility in Mesa and gets volunteers from all over the valley to come in, get trained and pack food for hungry kids. Let’s get a group together and spend the 3 hours or so that it would take to get there and back and pack some food. Everything we need is there. They just ask for volunteers to assist. They have very flexible hours. If you are interested,

see me, and I will set up a time that works for whoever can do it.

I would like to purchase a table for 10 to back Sharon who has a passion for CAAFA. We budgeted some money for CAAFA. So, let’s write a check for $225.00. Get a table for 10 and socialize for a good cause and eat some BBQ. This takes place at Dolce Vita on Sat. November 5th at 5:30 pm. It features a band and a silent auction.

The Scotland Golf Raffle is a chance to win a trip to Scotland for 6 nights accommodations, 5 rounds of golf at the home of golf, $7500 in spending cash and a van to use. Or up to $25,000 if at least 2000 tickets are sold. We are attempting to sell 50 of the 2500 tickets. You can purchase them from Ed or online at http://smrc.scotlandgolfraffle.com

Our annual Christmas party will be held at Jack Beveridge’s home on Friday, December 16, 2016 from 6 pm until 9 pm. We could use a volunteer to organize the affair. To secure a caterer, entertainment,

collect maybe $10/person(?) in person or at Jacks as people arrive.

New members-

Let’s get to know these new members. Educate them on Rotary and what we do here. Make a personal connection. Learn more about them, their work, their families. Inspire them. Encourage them. Make it fun and make a new friend. Get them involved in the areas of Rotary that meet their needs and interests.

Finances-

We appear to be in good shape. We will be writing the check of $10,000 soon that was committed last fiscal year to the Flatiron Park’s splash pad. We have a pretty ambitious donation plan.

Field Trip-

It has been suggested that we take a break from this meeting room on a Wednesday to attend another location. Maybe the Arboretum or a manufacturing facility or another place of interest. Give me an idea of what would be of interest to us and lets do it.

The District Vocational Fund Chair has encouraged us to do 2 minute vocational talks to share your company’s information with our club. If any of you would like to do a life story or classification talk, let Harvey

know and he will schedule you in the speaker’s schedule.

Celebrating TRF’s 100th anniversary as well as the 55th anniversary of our Club’s origination-

One possibility would be Brian’s idea of a comedy night in AJ. We could introduce Rotary to the public at the beginning of the show and have a fun event, possible fund raiser, and celebrate Rotary all in one evening. This would probably take place in the early part of 2017. This is still in the idea stage so let’s give it some thought.

If anyone has any suggestions on improving or changing something that our Club is doing. Please attend a board meeting or present it to our club and we will give it every consideration. There is always room for improvement.

We can be proud of the fact that our club has three members who are candidates for public office. Sharon Stinard is running for the Arizona House as a representative of House Legislative District 16. Mike McCord is going to be the new Pinal County Treasurer since he is running unopposed for that position. Jodi Ehrlich is running for the Apache Junction Unified School District Board of Education. We'll find out on November 8 how they come out in the election. Let's wish them all good luck!

Our speaker today was DG Tonya Watson. She reminded us that our District 5510 is merging with District 5490 to form a new District 5495 that will cover the northern half of Arizona. She thinks it is good for everyone - we will be bigger, better and stronger as a combined district.

Tonya spoke of this year's top priorities for Rotary.

1. Look at value added by membership in Rotary

How does being a Rotarian add value to club members, to the community and to the world? How can we increase this value?

2. Stop the revolving door of membership

Would I join my club again today? If so, why? If not, why not? How can we do a better job of keeping members?

3. Celebrate 100 years of doing good

2017 is the Centennial Year for the Rotary Foundation - that tremendous mechanism that helps Rotary do more good in the world than any other non-governmental organization. Make the Centennial of TRF a big deal this year.

4. Participate in the district-wide Assist-an-Elder campaign

Find a way to be of service to elderly persons who need some help - home repairs, calls and visits, meal delivery, yard work, special remembrances like Valentine's Day. Try to involve youth in these projects too.

5. Leap into the future with pride and strength

We belong to a great organization and each of us individually and collectively contribute to making Rotary the world's largest and most effective service club.

Our visiting Rotarians today were District Governor Tonya Watson from the Flagstaff Rotary Club, Carole Kralicek of the Mesa West club who is the District Public Image Chair and Keith Lindgren, winter visitor from the Rotary Club of Hampton Roads in Virginia Beach, VA. Steve Cervantes accompanied DG Watson.

District Governor Tanya Watson assisted the club in inducting these new members. Step up and introduce yourself to them at a future meeting.

Heather Wallace (L) with her sponsor Dana Hawman (R). Heather is the Director of Educational Services for the Apache Junction Unified School District. She lives in Gold Canyon on Rising Sun Place. Her husband/partner is Jef.

Jodi Ehrlich is a CPA with TPG Tax 3 Accounting. She is running for the AJUSD School Board. Jodi also lives in Gold Canyon on Cloud View. Her husband is Jeff Ehrlich. Her club sponsor is Harvey Clark.

Tamara (Tammy) Bricketto is self-employed with an accounting and tax business. Tammy has been serving as our interim club treasurer and she is a familiar welcoming face at club meetings. Her club sponsor is Ed Shockley.

Dave Webb is the owner of Sunland Promotions. He and wife Mickey are starting the "Sunland Showcase", a dinner and music show held at the Gold Canyon Resort. Dave lives in Apache Junction. His club sponsor is Harvey Clark.

Today's speaker was our own Harvey Clark. Harvey is a representative for SkyMed and he described that organization for us.

Sky Med provides up to 18 emergency travel services for people who experience a serious health emergency during their travel. Air transport can cost in the $30,000 to $50,000 range. Insurance companies will pay only a fraction of that amount. Sky Med will arrange and pay for a medically-equipped air ambulance to take you to the hospital nearest to your home after a medical emergency. Sky Med will arrange for a member's spouse/companion to accompany them on the air ambulance flight if space is available, and if not, will pay for a commercial flight. They will also arrange for the return of a car, RV, boat or truck to the owners residence. Sky Med is a membership organization and there are three tiers of membership - a short-term plan, a traditional annual plan and the ultimate plan. Harvey passed out information about Sky Med and offered club members a discount to join. He will be happy to chat with you regarding plans and costs.

Our guest at the October 5 meeting was our speaker Keith Krueger. At the October 12 meeting, Donna King of Cruises Inc. was a guest of Harvey Clark. Keith Lindgren was a visiting Rotarian from the Hampton Roads, VA Rotary Club. We welcomed back John Ewing from the Sioux Falls, SD Rotary Club; John is one of our regular attenders during the winter months.

2. Keith Lindgren from the Hampton Roads, VA Rotary Club presented President Ed with a trading banner from his club. Keith had tried to find Rotary clubs at two other locations today before finding us in session.

3. Mike Dungan brought us the News of the Day. One interesting fact he mentioned was that 16% of the American labor force was born outside of the U.S.

1. The club will have a Christmas party at the home of Jack and Vickie Beveridge. Save the date of December 16 on your calendar.

2. President Ed announced that the club Board has approved membership applications of three new people with a fourth application pending Board action. They will be inducted into the club during the Visit of DG Tonya Watson on October 19. They are Heather Wallace (AJUSD), Jodi Ehrlich (TPG Tax 3 Accounting), Dave Webb (Sunland Promotions) and Tammy Bricketto (Accounting).

3. Sharon Stinard announced that October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Wear your purple ribbons from last year or purple clothing. Bryant Powell said the city of AJ has purple light bulbs available. November 5 is the CAAFA fundraiser at Dolce Vita. We will have a Rotary table. She asks for donations from businesses for the silent auction.

4. Aaron McDermid said there are three different dates for the delivery of the dictionaries to the schools:

October 19 -Four Peaks and Peralta

October 20 - Avalon Academy

October 27 - Desert Vista

The labeling party will be held on Friday October 14 from 12 -1 at Bob Crow's home at 7104 E. Mariola Court in in the Mountainbrook Village subdivision in Gold Canyon.

5. Mike Cowan announced that our volunteers will not be asked to check IDs at the Ranch Rodeo.

6. President Ed read the list of October birthdays and anniversaries.

7. Mike Dungan brought us the News of the Day. The most dominating football score ever attained was a 222-0 victory of Georgia Tech over Columbia Tech in 1916. John Heismann of the award fame was the Georgia Tech coach.

8. Mike Munion won $10 in today's drawing that was worth $37. He drew the 7 of hearts.

Today's speaker was Keith Kruger on the topic of light pollution. We have been adding lots of outdoor lighting for public spaces and private businesses. Much of the lighting is unshielded and the light projected upward is wasted energy. As lighting has become more efficient, it has also become more invasive. Unshielded lights lead to sky glow which negatively affects astronomy, invasion of people's homes via windows and negative effects on wildlife and human health.

Keith gave a demonstration of the difference in an unshielded 40 watt bulb versus shielded one.

The solution is to allow only exterior lighting in which the light does not project above a 90 degree angle. The Dark Skies Ordinance prescribes this but it is not easy to enforce. Future progress will depend on public education efforts and local laws that require dark skies approved lighting.

Our speaker was Dr. Chad Wilson, Superintendent of the Apache Junction Unified School District. Chad spoke about the ballot proposal to authorize the district to sell any of the 4 currently unused school properties to raise money for capital expenditures of the district (busses, carpets, repairs, etc.). He explained the details and asked us to support the proposal.

I thought you may be interested in playing golf in Scotland (the home of golf) or receiving up to $25,000 cash. Scotland Golf Raffle 2016 is a fundraising raffle sponsored by Superstition Mountain Rotary Club and Tempe South Rotary Foundation. The net proceeds from the raffle will benefit our community with support for the Apache Junction Food Bank and the Boys and Girls Club. Raffle ticket holders have the chance to win a 7 day, 6 night golf vacation with 5 rounds of golf for 4 golfers in St. Andrews, Scotland. Airfare, self-drive rental in Scotland, and $7,500 spending cash included. Courses to be played are Old Course, New Course, Carnousie, Glen Eagles, and Crail. Tickets are only $25 and only 2500 tickets will be sold. The winning ticket will be drawn December 30, 2016. Tickets at SMRC.ScotIandGolfRaffle.com.

Chief Bourgeois mentioned the "Four Way Test" banner and said he found the emphasis on core values similar to what they do at SFM.

He is here today to acquaint us with the fire district budget override proposal on the November 8 ballot (near the bottom of the ballot). The state fire districts are falling behind in replacing needed ambulances, fire trucks and personal protective gear. This is due to the drop in home valuations during the recession coupled with Prop 117 which limits the annual increase in home valuations as valuations rebound. The legislature granted a 5-year temporary window for fire districts to propose budget overrides. The proposal on the ballot has nothing to do with salaries or building new fire stations. The Chief requested our support for this override ballot measure.

Our speaker Bill Mundell is a 30-year veteran of state government in Arizona. He is a graduate of Saguaro HS and ASU. He has served in all 4 branches of AZ government - Judicial (as a judge), Legislative (as a representative), Executive (as Director of the AZ Registry of Contractors) and as a commissioner on the AZ Corporation Commission. This is Bill's 4th visit to speak at our club.

Bill is a Clean Elections Act candidate for the Corporation Commission. He had to raise 2,000 $5 contributions to qualify for Clean Elections funding. The Corporation Commission regulates monopolies in AZ such as those involved with electric service, natural gas, land line telephones, water companies, sewer companies, etc. There are over 400 private water and sewer entities in the state. Decisions by the Corporation Commission therefore affect everyone's life. The Commission is quasi-judicial - it hears arguments pro and con in trials like those that go on in courtrooms. Administrative law judges recommend a preliminary finding to the Commission which can accept it, deny it or modify it.

Bill explained the issue of dark money being involved in the campaigns of candidates for the Commission. The Citizens United case at the Supreme Court abolished the cap on campaign contributions from PACs, corporations and unions. Prior to that decision, donors had to reveal how much they gave and to whom. The AZ legislature acted to make it even easier to hide dark money so now dark money contributions have become a big factor in AZ elections.

Karen Perry was our guest speaker. Karen is a 32-year veteran flight attendant for Delta Airlines, a commercial pilot and flight instructor, and the mother of three young children who perished along with their father, Karen’s ex-husband, when they crashed into the side of the Superstition Mountain four years ago.

Karen’s life was not easy, but she pursued it with passion. She became a pilot when the field was a boys’ club; she had three children when she had been told she could not have children; her daughter was severely affected by epilepsy, and one of her sons was autistic; she battled breast cancer twice within a decade and beat the odds. None of this compared to losing her entire family on the night before Thanksgiving, 11/23/2011.

The flight took off during a pitch black night. The six occupants of the small plane could not see anything outside the windows, but the pilot had flown the route many times, including just two nights before. On this particular night, though, before turning him loose, air traffic control had given him different instructions than he was used to. He didn’t question it, although it was odd. Six minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed into the side of the Superstition Mountains, going 200 miles per hour. Everyone on board was killed. “They missed clearing the peak by a few hundred feet. If they had been one or two degrees to the left or the right, they would have made it through safely and never known how close they had come to tragedy.”

The FAA changed the controlled airspace around Superstition Mountain in 2006, lowering it to 5000 feet in order to accommodate the increased air traffic going into Mesa Gateway and Phoenix Sky Harbor. The change forces private planes to fly lower than the peaks of the mountain. After the accident, an internal memo leaked to the public, acknowledging that the airspace was “deficient” in that area and needed some changes. To date, no changes have been made.

After the accident, Delta Airlines employees rallied around Karen, donating vacation days so that she could take a year off to deal with the trauma of her loss. Karen teamed up with a local author, Landon J. Napoleon, to write a book about her story (Angels Three, available on Amazon.com in Kindle as well as paperback). It took two years to complete, but was a cathartic experience for her and a reminder to readers to cherish every day with their loved ones.

“The beauty of this tragedy is that so many good things came from it.” In addition to the book, Karen started a non-profit, Three Wings of Life, dedicated to helping children. Services offered include Equine Assisted Therapy and weekly programs. “I am determined to honor the memory of my children by dedicating my life to improve the lives of all children.”

Aaron McDermid passed around a sign-up sheet for the annual Dictionary Project. The date this year will be Thursday, 9/22/16. We will be distributing more than 300 dictionaries to 3rd graders in the Apache Junction-Gold Canyon schools.

President Ed Shockley congratulated Sharon Stinard on winning the Democratic primary in her run for the AZ House of Representatives.

Mike Dungan delivered the news:

Ex-Texas Governor Rick Perry will be on the new season of Dancing With The Stars. The field also include Marsha from the Brady Bunch (Maureen McCormick) and bad boy Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte.

Bad blood made Tombstone, AZ infamous, and the political climate apparently has not changed over time. In the recent mayoral race, one intended candidate claims that the incumbent colluded with city officials to block him from that ballot. He filed a protest with the Attorney General, which is now being investigated by the FBI.

Our national debt is now $19.5 trillion. It is projected to reach $28.2 trillion within 10 years. Interest payments are expected to triple over the same time span, from $248 billion to $712 billion.

The balance on student loans is now $1.26 trillion, which is larger than the outstanding balance on auto loans, which is $1.1 trillion.

Have you checked out our club’s Facebook page? If you haven’t yet, “Like” us HERE. The page is filled with tidbits from our club, information about service opportunities, stories about Rotarian causes such as education and polio, and news from the charities our club has helped. Your “like” on our stories will help us to know what you want more of!

The drawing was worth$132 today. Bryant Powell won the drawing and $10 but drew the 8 of spades.

Dean Holmes brought his wife Ruth as a guest. They are celebrating their 28th anniversary on September 3. Ron Knies was back for a quick visit before he heads out on a cruise to Scandinavia. We had one visiting Rotarian but I didn't get his name because we didn't get him signed in.

Program Chair Harvey Clerk introduced our speaker Dr. Dorian Townsend. Dorian is the new Executive Director of CAAFA and has only been on the job 4 weeks. She has had previous experience with domestic abuse organizations in Russia, Australia and other locations in the U.S. She has experience as a fund raiser and a quality assurance manager. She plays hockey and likes strategic board games.

CAAFA is a sexual and domestic abuse service provider in northern Pinal County. Services include a 24/7 hotline, a shelter for women and children, trained needs advocates, legal advocates, support groups, empowerment sessions and outreach and education. Dorian handed out a Wish List of items needed by CAAFA (see other story in this newsletter).

Their fundraising dance - the Giddy Up Gala - is Saturday November 5 at Dolce Vita. Tickets are $25, tables for 10 are $225.

Gene Gehrt of the AJFM Board was a guest of Jared Gibbs. Judd Williams, honorary club member, was a guest of Jacquie Smith of the AZ Water Co. Dr. Dorian Townsend, Executive Director of CAAFA, was our speaker and club guest today.

Harvey Clark introduced our speaker Bernie Page. Bernie spoke on two topics - LegalShield and IDShield. LegalShield was founded in 1972 "with the mission to make equal justice under law a reality for all North Americans".

Too often the legal system can be skewed toward those who can afford the best attorneys. In addition, many people can not afford the costs of hiring an attorney to defend themselves. LegalShield is a form of membership group insurance in which members pay a monthly fee for a variety of services. For example, under LegalShield, a member has access to personal legal advice on an unlimited basis or assistance with an IRS audit. The current cost is $17.95/mo. for individuals and $19.95/mo. for families. They use a proprietary group of legal firms in each of the states. IDShield provides identity theft protection. They use Kroll Licensed Private Investigators - one of the biggest and best ID theft investigation companies. Kroll has a $5 million service guarantee to ensure restoration of your compromised accounts to pre-theft status. The cost is $9.95mo. for individuals and $19.95/mo. for families. For more information, visit his web site at www.pageassc.net.

1. Chief Kelly explained the details surrounding a recent shooting death in a barricade situation in Apache Junction.

2. Jay Jones wife Carol had surgery Monday. The club sends it best wishes to Carol for a speedy recovery.

3. Harvey Clark has the speaker schedule set through November.

4. President Ed reminded us of the Paint-A-Thon on October 22 (7AM to Noon) that the club will join as a service project. We need about 25 people on our work team so bring your spouse, your kids and your friends. We will wear the "Rotarians at Work" gold-colored vests. Hey if we get some paint on them, it will be evidence that we were in fact working.

5. Harvey Clark described the National Life Guard Championship held in Hermosa Beach, CA. His granddaughter Kaylee Peterson placed high in several events.

6. Mike Dungan brought us the news of the day.

7. Aaron McDermid did his duty raising funds as our Sergeant-at-Arms.

8. The drawing today was worth $99. Chief Kelly won the drawing, but gave the $10 back to the club. The Chief drew the ace of hearts which means lucky in love, but he was not so not so lucky at finding the joker.

Dr. Alex Foote went to BYU and then to chiropractic school. He practiced in California and Utah before moving to Arizona 10 years ago. His office is in Apache Junction near the hospital on Southern Ave. He has a niche practice focusing on pain relief involving the first cervical vertebra and the brain stem. His technique he says is effective in treating chronic pain, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, neuropathy and other chronic problems.

Dr. Foote offers a free consultation test that will tell him in 7-8 minutes whether the technique will be helpful to you as a potential patient. This is followed by 4 visits to develop a care plan (not free). The plan usually lasts 3-4 months and involves 24-48 visits. He is a Medicare provider.

Next week's program is a Club Assembly which is when club members gather to help shape the directions the club will take for 2016-17. President Ed will present his goals for the year and several other Rotarians will do the same. There will be ample opportunity for questions and comments. Please clear your schedule and come to this important meeting.

Rotary's expectation for attendance used to be 100% - if you missed a meeting of your local club you made up at a nearby club. A couple of years ago, that attendance expectation was dropped to 50%. Unfortunately, some members of our club almost never show up for meetings, even at a 50% expectation. You get out of an organization what you put into it. Rotary is a wonderful organization and our club is one of the local models for good organization, good leadership, good programs and fun fellowship. We want engagement from every person who decides to become a Rotarian. Do a little introspection on why you don't come to meetings regularly and if it is because the club is not doing what you would like to see done or is doing things you don't like, bring that to the Club Assembly next week.

Do you know someone who would make an interesting speaker for our club? If so, pass the name and contact information along to Harvey Clark. Is there a topic you would like to learn more about? Pass that along to him too. Our August list of speakers is empty so we need some ideas RIGHT AWAY.

President Ed read a thank you letter from Russell St. John thanking us for our contribution to the Boys and Girls Club.

Matt read a thank you letter from the Semper Fi organization for our contribution. This was Matt's special project as President.

Liz Langenbach and Bryant Powell brought an update on the Splash Pad Park in AJ. It is located across from Best Hardware. Our club has pledged $10,000. They hope to raise a total of $50,000 from local service clubs. If you know anyone in other clubs, encourage them to support the Splash Pad. Supporting contributions have been donated by AZ Water, SRP, Resolution Copper and others. They are hoping for a completion date in December.

President Ed announced an Arizona Emerging Leaders Conference for Rotarians under the age of 45. September 9, 8-4, Phoenix Central Library.

Introduce yourself to our new bookkeeper Tammy Bricketto when you sign in.

Next week is a Club Assembly.

Bob Crow won the drawing and $10 but drew the jack of spades. The pot was worth $78.50 today.

Camille Messing, a dental student at the U. of Colorado, was a guest of Dr. Tracey Yamamoto. Liz Langenbach, Parks Director for the city of Apache Junction, was a guest of Bryant Powell. Dr Alex Foote of the Neurologic Relief Center in Apache Junction was a guest of the club.

We had three visitors this noon - Cassandra Shockley (Ed's wife and therefore the club's First Lady), Karen McCann and Sharon Stuvel. Guests of the club were Tammy Bricketto (our new club bookkeeper) and June Cline (our speaker).

Our speaker today was humorist June Cline. June works with businesses and organizations to help them relax and ease tensions through the use of humor.

June divides humor types into Caustic, Crazy, Cerebral and Caring. She had club members move to one of the four corners of the room based on how they saw their own sense of humor. Surprisingly, most people saw their sense of humor as Cerebral. June kept people laughing throughout her presentation and it was nice to get a lift of spirits in the day.

Past President Matt Ruppert was presented with his first Paul Harris award and pin by president Ed Shockley. It was one of the club's ways of saying "Thank You!" to Matt for his excellent leadership of the club for Rotary year 2015-16.

Long time Rotary member Bob Crow was presented with his Major Donor + 3 award by President Ed Shockley. Crow said he has been working toward this goal for 30 years. Bob has been a regular supporter of the Polio Plus campaign and many other noble Rotary causes. Thank you Bob for your unswerving support of the goals of Rotary. You have made the world a better place.

Ed Shockley introduced Brian Vargas who is an applicant for a $1,950 scholarship from the Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona to complete a phlebotomist training program at East Valley Medical College. Brian was interviewed by Ed Shockley, Bob Homann and Bob Crow before the meeting. On the recommendation of the interviewers, the club voted unanimously to approve sponsoring Brian to the RVFA who will receive his funding from that organization.

President Matt passed the President's gavel to Ed Shockley who will be our club president for 2016-17. Both Matt and Ed spoke briefly about their leadership roles.

Matt receive a standing ovation for his excellent service and a plaque from Ed Shockley commemorating Matt's year of leadership.

Bob Benjamin won the drawing (2nd week in a row!) and $10 but drew the 10 of clubs. The pot was worth $58 today.

Our speaker today was Rick Hardina talking about Honor Flight Arizona. Matt Ruppert presented Rick with a check for $2,000 from the club for HFA.

The Honor Flight program has now pretty well included every living WW II veteran in AZ who is able or willing to make the trip. There may be as few as 47 who are too ill or unwilling to make the trip for various reasons. Honor Flight Arizona started in 2008. Since then, they have sent over 1,000 AZ WWII vets on 56 flights to the DC area. In the fall, they will begin switching over to Korean War vets. The flight costs $900 for family members and volunteers who accompany the vets on the flight. They pay this out of pocket. The flight crew from Southwest airlines are all volunteers. There is a doctor aboard each flight in case health issues arise. Each vet has a family guardian who accompanies him/her on the trip

Rick showed a video that followed a typical flight from beginning to end. It starts with breakfast at Sky Harbor followed by a procession to the gate which always leads to applause from people in the airport and a special send off group of volunteers. The plane flies to Baltimore where it is greeted by a firetruck water salute over the plane. Their visit in D.C. lasts 3 days. They visit the WW II memorial, the Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam War Memorial, the Marines Memorial, and the Seabees Memorial. They also visit the FDR Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the US Naval Academy, Arlington National Cemetery, and Ft. McHenry. Senator Jeff Flake visited the vets while they were at the WW II memorial. One of the touching moments was the interaction between the vets and kids and adults at the memorials. Rick said the vets remember the kids the most from their visit. On the flight home, they have a "mail call" in which each vet gets notes of appreciation from family members, friends and volunteers. There is a reception committee waiting for them when they deplane at Sky Harbor who cheer their arrival back. Many of the vets saluted as they got off the plane. "America the Beautiful" was being played in the background. Each vet later gets a video of their experience to share with others.

Rick's presentation on Honor Flight Arizona was one of the most moving we have ever heard. President Matt, an ex-Marine, took awhile to get his composure back as was true for some other club members. Rick said if anyone wants to volunteer for the send off group or the welcome back group, just contact him.

Nathan Chappell of Bank of the West was one visitor today. This is Nathan's 3rd visit and he would like to become a member of our club. Matt Busby, Asst. City Manager in AJ, was a guest of Bryant Powell. Brian Vargas who is here today as an applicant for a scholarship from the Rotary Vocational Fund of Arizona was a guest of the club.

Our speaker was Bret McKeand, Arizona President of the Independent newspapers. Bret lives in Apache Junction. He is the incoming president of the Rotary club of Peoria, AZ.

Bret has been with the company for 33 years. He started out as a reporter. The Independent is published as a community-specific paper for AJ/GC, Mesa, Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Queen Creek/San Tan Valley, Sun City, Sun City West, Surprise and Peoria. Their total distribution is around 250,000 with 15 separate publications. The company also publishes the Wall Street Journal for metro residents.

There is still a strong market for local news that doesn't make it into other media. These include local events, schools, local government, sports, clubs and organizations, etc. People also like the Independent ads for finding places to eat, services, coupons and sales. People also find it easy to get their name and picture or their organization's activities in the paper - lots of scrapbook articles for Moms and Dads. The Independent papers do not have reviews or comics but they do have an opinions page for people to exercise their First Amendment rights. All the Independent papers are paid for by advertising so are free to the public. There is also a website for each paper.

The papers that are in trouble financially are big city dailies with high overhead costs. The internet is the biggest competitor for these papers because it is so much faster and more comprehensive. Local papers are not affected to the same extent.

Bret said Rotary news is always welcome including speaker summaries and new members..

Past President Bryant Powell filled in today for President Matt Ruppert.

This weeks Rotarian magazine says polio has been eliminated in all the world except for two countries - Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mike Dungan brought us the News of the Day. Of note: 16 of the last 18 presidential election years have been good for investments. Also mandatory spending makes up 62% of the national budget and it is uncapped. Discretionary spending makes up 38% and is capped.

Aaron McDermid served as our Sargeant-at-Arms. He was assisted by Derek Kabat.

Paula Sussmore is the new Executive Director of the Apache Junction Food Bank. She has been on the job just a little over 2 months. She had previous experience with the Red Cross and the Girl Scouts.

Twenty grocery stores provide the area food banks with surplus food. From January 1 through May 31, the AJ Food Bank provided 17,000 pounds of food to 40,000 clients. Paula is starting an emphasis on healthier eating styles that will involve recipes and cooking classes. The nine organizations in the local area that provide food have formed a network to share information and needs. Paula thanked the Rotary club for its generous support of the food bank over the years. Len asked if they had started working on getting a second refrigerated truck. Her answer was "Not yet".

Dr. Renee Scott was a guest of Tracey Yamamoto. Nathan Chappell of the Bank of the West was a guest of Larry Johnson. Derek Kabat (age 7) was a guest of his Dad Brian Kabat. Our speaker Paula Sussmore of the AJ Food Bank was a club guest as our speaker of the day.

President Matt introduced our speaker of the day - Pamela Raye. Pam is from Hinsdale, NY. She is a Cornell University graduate who moved to AZ 5 years ago. Her main interest is promoting healthy living. Pam is here today to talk to us about the Tower Gardens created by Juice Plus for whom she is an independent representative.

Tower Gardens are state-of-the-art, aeroponic vertical gardens. Aeroponics is an advanced form of hydroponics in which plants grow in water usng liquid nutrients and a soilless growing medium. The towers have been successfully used here in Arizona.

Unfortunately, our guest speaker, Rick Hardina, was not able to attend as scheduled; however, Matt Rupert and guest Tom Webster have both volunteered with Honor Flight Arizona and were able to provide information about the planned topic.

From www.HonorFlightAZ.org: “Of all of the wars in recent memory, it was World War II that truly threatened our very existence as a nation – and as a culturally diverse, free society. Now, with 1500 World War II veterans dying each day nationwide, our time to express our thanks to these brave men and women is running out.”

Honor Flight was created in 2005, after the completion of the WWII Memorial in Washington D.C. The goal of Honor Flight is to get WWII veterans to Washington D.C. so they can visit the memorials dedicated to honor their service and sacrifices and those of their friends. “The WWII Memorial took way too long to be completed,” Matt declared. “By the time the memorial opened, who knows how many WWII veterans had already passed away without getting the opportunity to see it.”

“My father-in-law, who is 93 years old, served in the Battle of the Bulge. He took part in an Honor Flight Michigan trip about five years ago. My brother-in-law and nephew travelled to D.C. with him. It allowed them the opportunity to, not only chaperone their dad/grandpa to this epic event, but also to take part in seeing and understanding what it is all about.”

It costs about $900 to send one veteran from AZ to Washington D.C. Southwest Airlines plays a huge role, partnering with Honor Flight to shuttle veterans and chaperones. Hotel arrangements are taken care of. All costs for the veterans are covered by Honor Flight (chaperones pay their own way). Many of the elderly veterans need wheelchairs and other medical equipment; Honor Flight accommodates their needs.

Tom Webster picked up the narrative. “I’ve been involved with Honor Flight AZ for about a year now. There are 75 volunteers, but they had to cut off the volunteer applications, because there are so many people who want to get involved with this program. I can tell you from my experience that it’s an emotional experience every time you do it.”

With so many retirees living in this area, AZ has one of the largest Honor Flight programs in the country. “The organization, coordination, and facilitation are so remarkable; I’ve never seen anything like it. From the moment the veteran shows up at the curb, everything is taken care of. We greet them at the curb; escort them into an area of the Southwest terminal set aside for them; their bags are taken; they’re given a packet of information and a distinctive bright yellow t-shirt to put on, identifying them as WWII vets. Then we have time to get to know them. Honor Flight trains volunteers, ‘It’s not about you; it’s about them – pull them out and get them talking about their experiences.’ And I’ve heard some amazing stories.”

Once the veterans get down to the gate, Southwest makes an announcement telling everyone in the terminal that these are WWII veterans headed to Washington D.C. on an Honor Flight. “Spontaneously, every time, people in the terminal stand up and start applauding, and they start crying. It chokes you up every time you see it. Then, at the gate, there is an honor guard waiting to see them off.”

The average age of the participating veterans is 93. Honor Flight Arizona keeps the vets out for two overnights. Not all state organizations stay that long, but the extra day allows them to go to the Korean War Memorial, Congress, and Arlington Cemetery, as well as the WWII Memorial. On the return flight, organizers have “mail call” for the vets with letters from loved ones and school children. “There’s not a dry eye in the place.” By spring of next year, Honor Flight AZ will have completed their waiting list of WWII veterans and will continue the program with Korean War veterans. “Tremendous program; very well run.”

Superstition Mountain Rotary will be presenting Honor Flight AZ with a check that will pay for two veterans to participate.

The Conference of Clubs will be May 20-21 at the Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale, including awards, mystery speakers, and fun-filled surprises.

Matt Rupert requested that if anyone has any contacts/ideas for speakers, please speak with Matt or Harvey Clark.

Jim Erickson had emergency gall bladder surgery on Sunday.

Matt passed around a signup sheet to volunteer for summer hours at the Genesis Project. The soup kitchen mostly will need help on the weekends. Hours are 7am – 3pm, and they run eight people per shift. Volunteers can opt to work four-hour shifts, as well. Tom Puklin is coordinating the effort.

Bob Benjamin presented Brian Kabat with the appreciation plaque from the Lost Dutchman Marathon to Superstition Mountain Rotary so it could be publicly displayed at Frontier Ace Hardware.

Mike Dungan delivered the news:

7,000 undercover officers in Tehran are actively patrolling to be sure citizens’ attire meet the Iranian standards of modesty and morality. The Guidance Patrols, as they are called, occasionally cite men for things such as overly long beards, but women are the primary subjects of scrutiny. They can be fined for showing too much hair, taking a walk with a boyfriend, and many other such scandalous infractions.

According to the late George Carlin, “Everybody’s gotta have a place for their stuff.” Since he died eight years ago, his daughter, Kelly Carlin, has had custody of his stuff. Now she is donating his stuff to the National Comedy Center, which is opening next year in Jamestown, NY.

Nasa announced the discovery of an unprecedented number of planets beyond our solar system. Astronomers have confirmed the existence of 1,284 worlds orbiting distant stars. The planets were discovered with the help of NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which was launched in 2009.

Have you checked out our club’s Facebook page? If you haven’t yet, “Like” us HERE. The page is filled with tidbits from our club, information about service opportunities, stories about Rotarian causes such as education and polio, and news from the charities our club has helped. Your “like” on our stories will help us to know what you want more of!

Murray Hiatt won the drawing and $10 as we start building the pot again. It was worth $22 today. Murray drew the 6 of Diamonds.

A Board meeting was announced, to be held following the general meeting.

Matt reminded everyone of the District Assembly coming up on April 23 in Payson and April 30 in Scottsdale, providing a great opportunity to learn more about Rotary and incoming Board positions.

Matt Ruppert and Sharon Stinard will represent Superstition Mountain Rotary tonight (4/20/16) as they award ten $500 scholarships to selected honorees at Apache Junction High School. Bob Homann and Dana Hawman served on the selection committee. Dana will also attend the presentation to photograph the event.

Jim Erickson conveyed the news that the proposed merger between District 5510 and District 5490 has been approved, effective July 1, 2016. The resulting single District will be 5495.

The club received a thank you note from Genesis Project, expressing appreciation for the gift of $125. During the month of March, Genesis served an average of 117 people per day; 5,951 meals total.

Bryant Powell updated the club on the AJ downtown park. Our club has donated $10,000 of the $150,000 needed for the splash pad. For those who do not know, a splash pad, per Bryant, is “a really nice sprinkler.” The City is still seeking additional sponsors; they have collected about 40% of the necessary funds for the splash pad. “This kind of thing can’t happen without community partners. There is going to be a display at the park showing all of the contributors.” New parks director, Liz Langenbach, will provide a presentation for us with a full update about the downtown park in July.

Bryant also informed us about “Mount Trashmore.” The City is currently discussing a landfill closure plan, due to the fact that when the landfill was contracted in 1997, no closure date was set. Right now, the landfill operators have the legal right to fill one more cell, which will take 8-10 years. “What we’re trying to figure out is whether it is worth it to expand 20 feet higher instead of wider… For us, it’s an opportunity to discuss a closing date and create significant dollars toward the end of the life of the landfill to put in a park.” See Bryant for more of the inside scoop about landfill futures.

Our club’s Facebook page is picking up speed. If you haven’t yet, “Like” us HERE.

There are some major structural changes coming to the relationship between clients and investment advisors. The Department of Labor has issued a statement that, “There have been too many shortcuts between advisors and their clients. People are being ripped off.”

There is a distinguishing factor between a broker and a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA). A broker will recommend a product for a client according to a “suitability standard” based on the client’s age, assets, and risk tolerance. A RIA, however, must meet a higher standard called the “fiduciary rule.” The RIA pledges honesty, full facts, current information, listening, and putting the clients’ best interests first, even if it costs the advisor money. “It’s a lot like the Rotary Four-Way Test.” A RIA can be sued if he/she does not live up to the fiduciary rule. “A year from now, when the Department of Labor finally resolves these issues, they’re going to have a set of standards that are different from what you’re used to…the rules will apply to everybody.”

Over the last four years, arbitration has gone up by 20-25% because of shortcuts taken by individuals who represent different plans, to the detriment of their clients’ accounts. “There was a classic case back in 2004 over a conflict of interest. The State of California sued a nationally known broker dealer for about $300 million, because the individuals representing that broker dealer were steering clients to six or seven mutual funds. The mutual funds would then kick back to this broker dealer. They eventually settled with the SEC for about $75 million.”

“You never know when you buy a product if there’s a conflict of interest.” If you are sold a mutual fund, there is a “trail” that comes to the advisor, paying about a quarter of a percent ongoing – supposedly to pay for advertising and other business expenses. That will now be deemed as a conflict of interest. “That’s been going on a long, long, long time.”

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) allow for intra-day trading. “They look like a mutual fund, but you can buy and sell them like a stock.” Because they are low cost, “There’s about a trillion dollars of opportunity for the ETF industry to convert mutual funds into ETFs.” The low cost means that every dollar the consumer is saving for retirement goes to retirement, “not to some crook.”

A fiduciary is someone who is responsible for your money and has your trust… it’s a substantial change. The brokerage industry has been fighting this for a very long time, but change IS coming. Brokers will have to do their due diligence and be ready to be audited.

When interviewing a financial advisor, ask about fees; ask about how often he/she will meet with you and on what conditions. “I believe deeply that it’s very important to have an Investment Policy Statement (IPS). It’s a contractual thing, rather like a marriage certificate: ‘What am I, as an advisor going to provide for you; what are the conditions under which I will do that; and what are you, as the client, going to provide for me.’”

Terry and Mary Drader, winter visitor friends from Canada, recently returned from a trip to South Africa part of which was a Rotary project. Here is Terry's background story on South Africa.

"Dutch traders founded Cape Town in 1652 as a way station to and from the orient.

The rival British seized Cape of Good Hope (the point where the Atlantic and Indian oceans meet) in 1806. In 1833 England abolished slavery in all its colonies and about 12,000 Afrikaans farmers or “Boers” made the “Great Trek” north and east to establish new colonies that would not be under British rule.

Diamonds were discovered in 1867 and gold in 1886 spurring an influx of immigration of those seeking to strike it rich.

South Africa is well known for its decades long experiment with apartheid (separation) which ended in 1994. The first general election where all the citizens got to vote and Nelson Mandela became the first black president after 27 years of imprisonment.

South Africa is 1.2 million sq. km. or almost twice the size of Texas with a very diverse population of 54 million people – 80% Black, 8.8% Colored, 6.4% White and 2.5% Asian.

The climate ranges from sub-tropical to semi-arid and with water the agricultural possibilities are enormous, growing everything from grapes to fruit and vegetables to grain, fodder and trees.

The physical beauty is spectacular and constantly changing as you move over the next range of mountains into a new climate ecosystem.

South Africa has possibly the greatest biodiversity of the flora and fauna of any country on the planet and the photo ops are truly endless.

Game parks are both national and private. Some private parks will sell a guided hunt for as little as $200 USD for one of the smaller antelope.

South Africa is noted as a top 10 tourist destination because of value. Currently $1 USD = 14 SA Rand. You can get excellent wine for $3 - $4 USD per bottle. There is great food, good service provided by smiling friendly people, all in a very safe English speaking environment. We had a great time and met some wonderful Rotarians in South Africa and as well as those on our tour group. We would highly recommend South Africa to anyone yearning for an adventurre.

And in the over 50 countries that Mary and I have been hosted in or visited, one truth stands out as universal. People, no matter the culture, religion or geo/political position, all aspire to have a good life for themselves, a better life for their children and an even better life for their grandchildren.

Rotary brings us all together in that universal truth that supersedes all borders and prejudices and allows us to think of ourselves as global citizens. We are all brothers and sisters and if we are all united and committed, we can indeed change the world!"

Today's visiting Rotarians were Curry Bishop from the Haliburton, Ontario club; Van Van Jepmond from the Lacey, WA club, and Leland Smithson from the Cedar Rapids, IA club. Ted Snyder was a guest of Ed Shockley. Cindy Ruehl (CEO) and Dave Ochs (Treasurer) of the Superstition Area Land Trust (SALT) were guests of the club.

Harvey Clark introduced our guest speaker, Cyndi Ruehl, Executive Director of the Superstition Area Land Trust (SALT). Cyndi is an arid lands restoration ecologist. As such, she prefers to work toward land conservation and ecological planning in order to prevent the need for restoration or mitigation. In addition to being the first paid executive director of SALT, Cyndi chaired the Pinal Partnership Open Space and Trails Group and its northern regional group for the past seven years. She also serves as the first Chair of the newly formed Pinal County Open Space and Trails Advisory Commission.

Cyndi noted that the Rotary 4-Way Test includes, “Is it a benefit to all concerned?” That was a big clue “that I’m among friends,” because open space and protected space benefits everyone.

SALT started 23 years ago in Gold Canyon, right on Kings Ranch Road, when residents came together out of concern that the residential growth was getting out of hand, blocking access to trails, and creating rising concerns about conservation and urban sprawl.

About two-thirds of Pinal County is State Trust Land. “Pretty much anywhere you look, other than wilderness and mountains, if you see open space, it’s State Trust Land. That means it’s for sale.” In fact, just south of Apache Junction and Gold Canyon, where there is now open desert, plans already exist for a development called Superstition Vistas. That community is projected to house one million people.

“So how do we deal with development? How do we have smart growth? How do we make it ‘beneficial to all concerned’? That’s where we come in as a conservation organization.”

In 2009, a national non-profit, Trust Public Lands, conducted a study, “The Economic Benefits of Open Space and Trails in Pinal County, Arizona.” The study concludes that, not only are parks and open spaces great for recreation and tourism, they also help attract businesses that are looking to locate where they can offer potential employees a higher quality of life. Open spaces increase home values by about 40% and attract residential developers. Direct spending by visitors and tourists generates hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue, while the increased physical activity from park use generates measurable health benefits yielding medical cost savings totaling millions of dollars. Land conservation also helps protect the water supply by allowing for natural recharge and discharge and not contributing to groundwater withdrawals.

SALT has a six-pronged approach to conservation:

Advocacy – “We are at the table when land use decisions are being made… we’re not a group that throws ourselves down in front of bulldozers. We look for win-win solutions and problem-solving.”

Land Conservation – SALT is the only nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving the natural Sonoran Desert open spaces surrounding the Superstition Wilderness Area.

Education – “If you’re not aware of something, you don’t love it. And if you don’t love it, you don’t want to protect it.”

Stewardship – “We maintain several trails including the Hieroglyphics Trail, Silly Mountain, and an 11-mile trail that goes from Peralta Trail to Lost Dutchman State Park… We also have trail stewards who are out there walking the trails to help people.”

Scientific Study – “We’re developing a citizen science program. Get hold of me if you have some science in your background and you’d like to be involved.”

Partnership – SALT works with all stakeholders, including state and local government, NGOs, companies, and the public to protect lands that border the Superstition Wilderness Area.

“The challenges we face as a community are the potential of unregulated development around us and the popularity of our open spaces. We are loving our open spaces to death. What we need are volunteers, donations, and, especially, your input.”

President Matt Ruppert reminded everyone of the District Assembly coming up on April 23 in Payson and April 30 in Scottsdale, providing a great opportunity to learn more about Rotary and incoming Board positions.

The Conference of Clubs will be May 20-21 at the Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale, including awards, mystery speakers, and fun-filled surprises.

Superstition Mountain Rotary will be presenting ten $500 scholarships to selected honorees at Apache Junction High School on April 20, 7pm at the Performing Arts Center. Members are welcome to attend and celebrate the culmination of our fundraising efforts!

Mike Dungan reported the news:

Locally - According to Forbes magazine, Apache Junction is among the Top 25 Places to Retire.

Mike also noted that Jim Erickson was recently in New Mexico visiting the site where the atomic bomb was developed. At the same time, Secretary of State John Kerry was visiting the Hiroshima Memorial in Japan. Interesting…

With only 9 cards left, Matt tortured us by postponing the raffle drawing until its usual time. The pot was worth $751.50 today. Sharon Stinard won the drawing and $10 but drew the 8 of spades. Next week we are down to 8 cards which means your chance of winning is 12.5%. Not bad odds for that much money.

President Matt Ruppert reminded everyone of the District Assembly coming up on April 23 in Payson and April 30 in Scottsdale, providing a great opportunity to learn more about Rotary and incoming Board positions.

The Conference of Clubs will be May 20-21 at the Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale, including awards, mystery speakers, and fun-filled surprises.

Superstition Mountain Rotary will be presenting ten $500 scholarships to selected honorees at Apache Junction High School on April 20, 7pm at the Performing Arts Center.

Len LaFlesch, Dan Govinsky, and Harvey Clark were all recognized in the most recent District 5510 newsletter for sponsoring new members. Len has received his Gold pin backer (6 or more members), while Dan and Harvey have received their Bronze pin backers (2-3 members).

Earl Zumwalt introduced our guest speaker, Mid Carlozzi, Director of Genesis Project in Apache Junction. The Genesis Project is the only soup kitchen in Northwestern Pinal County, AZ – although the services they provide go much further than that.

“We are a multi-denominational Christian organization, with 140 volunteers coming from a number of different churches in Gold Canyon, Apache Junction, and Mesa.” Genesis Project has no paid employees.

Genesis Project was founded in 2006 as a cooling station at a church on Palo Verde where the homeless would hang out in the summer because it had some shelter. Soon Genesis founders realized that the people were not only hot, but also hungry. That first year, they started feeding 30 people per day, cooking in the church kitchen. The project remained at that church for three years.

“I guess after three years, if you’re cooking at someone else’s house, they say, ‘Y’know…it’s time you found a new home,’ so we moved to another church.” After three years at that church, the pastor asked them to move on, and they moved to their current location on Idaho Road in Apache Junction.

In 2015, Genesis Project served 48,000 meals, averaging 180 meals per day. Last month, they served 6,000 people, averaging 248 meals per day. Clients include the homeless, but also veterans and “an amazing number of seniors at risk. If they have to spend their money on prescriptions, they can’t buy food.” Genesis also sees a number of folks with handicaps and mental illness. “We’re really concerned about where social service cuts are going in the future. As services are reduced, it drives more and more people to go hungry.”

Genesis serves hot meals five days per week and one Saturday per month, with a lunch bag “to go” for each client so they also have an evening meal. Genesis also provides a clothing bank, shower vouchers for the Multi-Gen Center, and bi-weekly haircuts. Weekly services include a nurse (who has been with Genesis for seven years), a mental health clinic, and bicycle repair. Circle the City Homeless Health Van has also started coming to the center, providing free medical care “to anybody that needs it.”

Mid quoted Wikipedia’s definition of generosity, “Generosity is not solely based on one's economic status, but instead, includes the individual's pure intentions of looking out for society's common good and giving from the heart. Generosity should reflect the individual's passion to help others.”

Genesis Project is supported by donations from churches, civic organizations, and individuals. A few examples of the generosity seen at Genesis Project include:

A dentist in Tempe who provides free dental services to Genesis’ clients.

One at-risk client donates $100 each month to thank Genesis for their services. He tells Mid, “I’d rather eat here because the food is better than most restaurants, I enjoy the company of the clients, and I love what you’re doing.”

A mystery donor knocks on the door every couple of weeks and hands Mid an envelope. The envelope lists all of the man’s bills – rent, utilities, etc. – with each item scratched off, and inside the envelope will be a few dollars, or sometimes just change. Whatever he has left over after bills, he donates.

Last November, two volunteers stepped up to pay for cataract surgery for one of our clients who had been with us for five years. He was basically blind for eight years. Sadly, he passed away recently, but for the last six months of his life, he could see.

“These folks are the reason I do what I do, because of their generosity.”

Challenges for this year at Genesis include:

Air Conditioning: currently, Genesis Project has only swamp coolers.

Rent.

Cost of Food and Water.

Summer Help.

Genesis is open Monday through Friday from noon to 2pm.

Donations may be brought to the kitchen Monday through Friday from 10 am to 2 pm.

Their address is 564 N. Idaho Rd. #5, across the street from the Pinal County Complex.

District Assembly is coming up on April 23 in Payson and April 30 in Scottsdale, providing a great opportunity to learn more about Rotary and incoming Board positions

Relay for Life will be April 9 – 10 at the AJHS football field, benefitting the American Cancer Society

The Conference of Clubs for our district is May 20-21 at the Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale

Mike Cowan brought in the presentation check with the club’s earnings from beer sales at the Lost Dutchman Rodeo.

The club netted $10,063 plus tips of approximately $2,700, rivaling the earnings from the Lost Dutchman Marathon. There is some debate about whether the fundraising is a competition, but one thing is for sure: the children who benefit from the funds are the winners!

President Matt Rupert introduced our guest speaker: our own Sharon Stinard, candidate for the Arizona House in Legislative District 16. Sharon spoke about the Clean Elections Commission.

Voters established the Clean Elections Act in 1998 to promote democracy and fight corruption in politics. The Clean Elections Commission is a non-partisan group of five members, tasked with administering the Clean Elections Act and making sure the candidates and voting matters are handled correctly. Violators can be brought up on charges. Currently, the commission consists of two republicans, two democrats, and one independent.

All candidates who run for office using the Clean Elections Fund are required to go through a training class to be sure they are familiar with the rules and regulations governing their use of funds. The Clean Elections candidates are also required to participate in forums hosted by the Clean Elections Commission. Candidates who conduct campaigns using private funding are not required to participate, but may if they so desire.

The Clean Elections Commission also produces non-partisan, neutral informational booklets that are sent to every registered voter, introducing the candidates. The commission’s motto is, “The only side we take is yours.”

Most first time candidates use the Clean Elections Fund to conduct their campaign, “because most first time candidates don’t yet have friends with deep pockets.” However, because politicians may choose to run their campaign using only private donations, the discerning voter must consider who is funding that candidate’s campaign and to whom he or she may be beholden.

All candidates running using the Clean Elections Fund must collect 300 $5.00 contributions from the district in which they are running. “All I have to do is go door-to-door every Saturday and get $5 contributions from people I don’t know… and this also ensures that there is citizen participation. I think I can be a good candidate, but do other people? Even though we may not align on all the ideological issues, is there a common core that we share? If enough people believe that and support you, then that says something about your candidacy as well.”

The Clean Elections Fund is supplemented by the 300 $5 contributions that the candidates must collect. The rest of the money comes from fines and fees. There are NO taxpayer dollars that go into the fund.

Candidates are allowed to collect seed money up to a total of $4,011 from anyone – even out-of-state or non-registered voters – but they cannot go over that amount. “My heart’s been hurt, because people are giving me checks for $25 or $50, and I have to say, ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t accept that. I’m already at $4,011 dollars!’”

“Also, I, as a candidate, can only contribute $720 to my own campaign. That also includes my husband, my three sisters, my nieces, all their husbands, and if my parents or grandparents were alive, they would be included, too. All of us together could only provide $720 total to the campaign. So it really keeps you down to earth, meeting and greeting as you go.”

“I’m probably 2/3 of the way to collecting the 300 $5 contributions, so I have been doing house parties and going door-to-door. I’ve come to enjoy both. Besides…it’s pretty good exercise. And it is really interesting when people start declaring their politics. I call it candidate education.”

Harvey Clark introduced our guest speaker, Jim Schenck, Manager of Community and Social Performance at Resolution Copper in Superior, AZ.

Jim is originally from California, but at the age of 20, he moved to Columbia for a job. He spoke no Spanish at the time, but he fell in love with Latin America. As a result, he has lived most of his life in Central and South America, working primarily on community development and US foreign aid. He later worked for Pima Mining – long enough to buy a motorcycle and go to Guatemala. Jim had also been the regional director for sustainable development for Goldcorp, a gold mining company, and he had been the first manager of the Marlin Mine, a controversial gold mine and the largest mine in Central America.

In 2011, Jim and his wife moved back to the United States. He joined Resolution Copper in 2014. One of the primary reasons Jim applied for a job with Rio Tinto (Resolution’s parent company) was because of the reputation Rio Tinto has for its communities work around the world.

“The question is,” said Jim, “can you care about communities and the environment and work for a mining company. I certainly believe you can.”

Resolution Copper is a joint venture, owned 55% by Rio Tinto, and 45% by BHP. Basically, Rio Tinto runs the mine, using their standards and management systems.

Magma Copper was established in 1912 by Boyce Thompson. He had been advised NOT to purchase the old silver mine there, because the silver had played out. But Thompson realized that the live natural copper he saw there would be in great demand in the approaching war (WWI). Magma was a major producer for many years, was purchased by BHP, then finally closed its doors in 1995. At that time, the population in Superior dropped from about 6,500 people to 2,800.

In 2004, Resolution Copper Company teamed up with BHP and became the managing member of the Resolution Copper Project.

Magma was “cut and fill” vein copper mining, with ore ranging from 4 – 6% copper. That vein has played out. What remains is the “porphyry” ore body, which means that the ore is dispersed through the ore. It is about 1.5% copper, but it is rated as one of the best three ore bodies in the world. It is expected to remain active for about 40 years, providing about 25% of US copper.

Right now, Resolution Copper employs about 250 people. When the mine goes into construction, it will employ about 2,000 people. As an active mine, it will employ 1,400 people in direct jobs and another 2,300 in indirect jobs, creating about $1 billion annually in economic activity.

“The mining world has changed a lot. A mining company’s reputation balances on what they do when they close the mine and how they work with the community while they are there. One half of the value that Resolution Copper creates is profit, but the other half is the long term value proposition in the communities where they work.”

In 2014, Resolution Copper completed the deepest single lift shaft in the US: 6,943 feet. They are working now on taking another shaft to the same depth, then they will link the two. That will take “a couple of years.” Also in 2014, the Forestry Service accepted the company’s mining plan of operation. The Land Exchange Bill passed in 2014 also, clearing the way for Resolution Copper to trade 2,200 acres of federal land that sits on the edge of the ore body (including Oak Creek campground) for 5,300 acres of conservation land owned by Resolution Copper (including the Apache Lake area).

“Any project of this size has the highest level of scrutiny. We’re going to need 50 different licenses before this mine can be built.” Right now, the US Forestry Service is seeking public comment about the land swap, via website (www.ResolutionMineEIS.us), email (Comments@ResolutionMineEIS.us) phone call (1-866-546-5718), or mail (US Forest Service, P.O. Box 34468, Phoenix, AZ 85067-4468 Attn: Resolution EIS Comments). Four open houses will be held as a part of the review process. All are scheduled from 5-8 pm: